- acquires two leading flight management systems, PFM and BART
- expands to over 700 operators and 10,000 business aircraft on its platform
- aims to expand its portfolio of digital solutions for the business aviation industry
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 1, 2023 — Portside, the leading Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform for the business aviation industry, today announced that it has raised a $50 million Series B investment led by global software investor Insight Partners, with participation from existing investors, including I2BF Global Ventures. This new round of funding is a testament to Portside’s significant growth in 2022 and the increased adoption of its software solutions by the business aviation community. The company intends to use the new funding to accelerate software development and further expand its customer base and product portfolio.
Portside’s cloud-based product suite brings modern technology to the global business aviation industry and supports a diverse range of flight operations in over 30 countries, including charter, fractional, corporate, medical, industrial, government, military and cargo aircraft and helicopter operators. Its product portfolio supports a growing list of functions in a typical flight department’s operation, including flight and crew scheduling, dispatch and compliance; communication with aircraft owners, passengers and crew; highly customizable sharing of operational, financial, crew, and maintenance data with various stakeholders; reporting and analytics; customer billing; crew recruiting; and the booking of crew accommodations.
In 2022, Portside acquired two flight management systems, Professional Flight Management (PFM) and BART, which provide scheduling and dispatch software primarily for corporate flight departments. This latest investment enables Portside to enhance and modernize PFM and BART software offerings to better serve customers.
“Increasingly, operators in business aviation are looking for mobile-first and cloud-based solutions. Portside provides industry leading solutions that enable operators to grow their businesses while improving the quality of service they can offer. Our focus on the customer and delivering secure, intuitive and effective solutions makes Portside the best solution for all private, corporate and government flight departments,” said Alek Vernitsky, co-founder and CEO of Portside.
“Portside’s modern product suite allows aviation operators to enhance their operations to maximize revenue and profits. As operators look to scale, they will adopt Portside’s technology to achieve their goals cost effectively,” said Henry Frankievich, Managing Director at Insight Partners. “We look forward to supporting the team on their continued path to modernize business aviation with industry leading technology and growth.”
Portside will invest the new funds in several key areas. First, the company’s product team will continue to develop and enhance its product portfolio to better serve customer needs. The company also intends to expand its global sales organization and strengthen its customer success operations. Lastly, the company will be exploring new acquisition opportunities in the business aviation ecosystem.
“Our customers often come to us with challenges they need help solving. We are here to find a solution, whether by deploying an existing product in our portfolio, building something new or acquiring capabilities that we do not currently possess. Despite our tremendous growth over the past few years, we are as excited today to be solving customer problems as we were on day one,” said Alek Strygin, co-founder and COO of Portside.
About Portside
Portside is a modern, cloud-based operating system for the global business aviation industry: a set of integrated software solutions addressing major industry pain points. The Portside platform supports over 700 business aircraft operators in over 30 countries. Some of their customers include Airshare, Jet Aviation, Priester and Wheels Up. Portside is headquartered in San Francisco with team members across the US, Europe and Asia. To learn more about Portside, visit portside.aero.
About Insight
Insight Partners is a global software investor partnering with high-growth technology, software, and Internet startup and ScaleUp companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. As of June 30, 2022, the firm has over $80B in regulatory assets under management. Insight Partners has invested in more than 700 companies worldwide and has seen over 55 portfolio companies achieve an IPO. Headquartered in New York City, Insight has offices in London, Tel Aviv, and Palo Alto. Insight’s mission is to find, fund, and work successfully with visionary executives, providing them with right-sized, right-time practical, hands-on software expertise along their growth journey, from their first investment to IPO. For more information on Insight and all its investments, visit insightpartners.com or follow us on Twitter @insightpartners.
SOURCE Portside
