VistaJet Group Holding Ltd. has agreed to buy JetSmarter, an Uber-like service that connects travelers to empty seats on chartered planes.
JetSmarter operates via an app that’s been downloaded more than 2 million times, VistaJet said in a statement Wednesday. It didn’t give a price for the purchase, though JetSmarter, which has been backed by rap mogul Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter and the Saudi royal family, was valued at $1.6 billion in 2016.
The acquisition will be consolidated into the rest of VistaJet’s aviation business, providing faster access to its services, Steve Langman, co-founder of Rhone Capital, a private equity group that bought around 7 percent of VistaJet in 2017, said in the release.
VistaJet was founded by Swiss billionaire Thomas Flohr in 2004 while JetSmarter was established in 2012.
SOURCE Bloomberg