Fly like never before: JetSetGo bags funding from cricket icon Yuvraj Singh

Cancer patient Kanika Tekriwal was undergoing endless chemotherapies and radiations. But she refused to rest. Confident of being able to win the battle, she started preparing for another tough game while she was still being treated: entrepreneurship. The 25-year-old management grad was chalking out plans to launch JetSetGo, an aggregator of private jets and helicopters.

Tekriwal wanted to ensure that Indians can fly like never before. “While I was on bed rest, the problem of booking jetty kept bouncing off my head,” says Tekriwal, who was managing operations at an aviation firm. There was no formal channel, so most Indians relied on brokers or aircraft operators through personal recommendations or Google results. Brokers obviously recommend the planes that give them more commission. Some of them even create artificial scarcity to make customers pay astronomical amounts.

“There was a need for a professional charter service providing a variety of aircrafts with a transparent pricing system so that more Indians start using the medium to travel,” Tekriwal says. Presently, private aircrafts are used only by top officials of large corporates, bollywood or cricket celebrities, high net worth individuals, and some commoners during medical emergencies.

“We want to expand market size, bring new users and customers into the mix, and more importantly deliver a superior experience through the process. The private aviation industry in India has historically been operating behind closed doors with alarmingly low levels of market awareness and product information. At JetSetGo we will unveil an all-new era of private aviation and luxury travel,” says Tekriwal.

Funding from cric icon

Today, Tekriwal revealed that the startup secured funding from cricket icon and another cancer survivor Yuvraj Singh, via his venture investment arm YouWeCan.

The deal size remains undisclosed.

The startup allows charter customers to book a private jet online by entering travel details of cities they would like to fly to along with date and time. JetSetGo would then presents all the available options. It services smaller cities of India which are still not served by commercial airlines. Tekriwal pointed out that there are over 200 functional airstrips but less than 40 percent of them are connected by commercial airlines, so the scope for growth in private aviation for connectivity to smaller cities is tremendous.

“Despite established business models globally from fractional ownership to jet loyalty programs, India still lags severely behind with private aviation comprising less than 15 percent of air traffic in Indian skies,” says Tekriwal.

The startup claims to service 25 orders per day. It services customers from Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, New York, and Dubai.

Newer heights

With fresh funding, the startup is working on improving service at every customer touch point through the journey process on the ground at both departure and arrival airports and on board.

On the aircraft operator’s side, JetSetGo provides a cloud based enterprise management tool which combines scheduling, advanced trip pricing, and business intelligence capabilities. It will soon also have transactional capabilities.