BlackBird is an aviation marketplace company that recently announced it raised $10 million in Series A funding led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA). This investing round will be used for adding more pilots and planes throughout this year.
In conjunction with this funding round, NEA partner Jonathan Golden is joining BlackBird’s board. Golden was a co-founder and board member of the StartX startup accelerator, the director of product at Airbnb, a product manager at Dropbox, and an investor at Greylock Partners.
BlackBird connects airlines passengers with private pilots who are potentially leaving from the same departure city and the going to the same destination at the same time. By making these optimizations, passengers will be able to travel long distances for roughly the same or less than the amount as driving.
“We also now offer two ways to fly: joining a flight and creating one. Guests can simply hop on a flight that’s already going, with seats starting as low as $50. For a more customized experience, BlackBird makes it easy to create a flight, giving you control to choose everything from the route, time, aircraft and pilot,” wrote BlackBird founder and CEO Rudd Davis in a blog post. “In addition to passengers, pilots and aircraft owners complete the BlackBird trifecta. Commercial pilots now have a way to make money on their own schedule, giving flights without being forced to commit to a major airline. Our safety screening ensures that only the best climb into the cockpit, with every pilot meeting the BlackBird Gold Standard in certifications, experience, and health.”
Recently, BlackBird hired 15 new team members and the company now has more than 700 commercial pilots who fly between 50 and 500 miles around and within California. Another key hire was Brian Hsu as the chief operating officer. Hsu used to be the VP of Supply at Lyft and he also held multiple executive positions at eBay. And the company added hundreds of planes and pilots to its platform.
According to TechCrunch, Davis came up with the idea for BlackBird as he was getting his pilot’s license. When he asked his flight instructor if he would fly his family to Tahoe since his son gets car sick. The quick and affordable trip by plane gave Davis the inspiration he needed to launch this company.
