Wheels Up has announced that it has completed its Class D equity capital raise of $128 million. New to the Company’s roster of institutional investors are funds managed by Franklin Templeton, which co-led the round with funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price and Fidelity Management & Research, along with other institutional and private investors. The Company’s post-money enterprise valuation is north of $1.1B.
The raise comes on the heels of the Company’s recent acquisition of Travel Management Company, which closed in May 2019. Wheels Up was represented by Jefferies, LLC as an advisor for this transaction.
Wheels Up Founder and CEO Kenny Dichter said this latest round of financing will fund a number of business initiatives, including additional potential acquisitions, the acceleration of membership growth through further investment in sales and marketing, and significant scaling of the Company’s technology and digital platforms.
“The continued support from our existing investors and the strong interest from new institutions in our latest investment round reinforce the dominance that Wheels Up continues to exhibit as an innovative disruptor and leading force in the private aviation and technology industries,” said Dichter. “As we invest further in growth-focused initiatives, we will focus on potential strategic acquisitions and rapid digital advancements to further our mission of bringing the highest-quality private flight to millions and the private-flying lifestyle to the world, in order to execute our vision of building the world’s most engaged community of private fliers.”
Wheels Up was represented by Goldman Sachs and BofA Merrill Lynch as placement agents for the Class D equity private placement.
It will be interesting to see if Wheels Up uses this latest capital raise to advance closer to Dichter’s vision of a 1000 King Air fleet by 2030.
Press release: Wheels Up