JetBlue Ventures may be changing hands, but CEO Amy Burr expects the firm’s investment priorities to remain largely the same.
That’s because the new owner of the venture capital firm, Sky Leasing, still has an interest in improving the airline industry. It’s an asset management company that specializes in aviation finance, with a portfolio that includes more than 100 airlines worldwide.
Burr is not ready to talk about the JetBlue Ventures funding structure under the new ownership or how many investments the firm plans to make for the rest of the year. But she did say what the team of nine is keeping their eyes on.
Investment Priorities
When Burr spoke with Skift in late 2022, she was more interested in blockchain as it relates to data storage, as well as biometrics and ideas like digital bag tags.
The world has changed since then, and so have investment interests.
- That means the team is more interested in AI tools as a way to improve operations and efficiency. “We’ve been looking at a lot of that type of company for the last two years,” Burr said.
- And they’re interested in data infrastructure and tech around security and cybersecurity — a big concern right now for airlines, especially with the rise of data sharing.
- The team is also still looking at digital identity and fintech.
JetBlue Ventures has invested in 55 early stage startups and made more 40 follow-on investments since it was founded in 2016. Eight of those companies have either been acquired or gone public, and a handful have gone out of business. Past investments include the electric aircraft startup Joby — which went public via SPAC in 2021 — and airline retail platform Flyr.
The company has invested in multiple startups over the last couple of years, including: Air Company (renewable jet fuel), Wherobots (cloud services), Beacon AI (digital pilot assistant), Aether Fuels (renewable jet fuel), NLX (AI for customer service).
The company has invested pretty thoroughly in climate tech over the past couple of years, so now they’re looking to put their eggs in some other baskets.
“We’re always on the lookout for the next game-changing technology that will really transform the ecosystem. We have a pretty broad mandate in terms of the type of things we’re looking for.”
JetBlue Ventures and the Airline
JetBlue is maintaining its relationship — at least for now — with JetBlue Ventures but is not making any new investments, Burr said.
JetBlue was the sole investor in JetBlue Ventures, and the investments always came from the airline’s balance sheet, Burr said. That means the airline still has a stake in all the startups it has invested in so far, and the plan for now is to maintain that. JetBlue Ventures’ total equity investments were valued at $89 million at the end of the first quarter this year, according to a public filing.
“This is a time for them to focus on the core operations of the airline … yet they still want to have that access to innovation and that ability to ingest emerging tech and have us there to explain to them some of the great things that are happening in the industry,” Burr said in an interview with Skift.
That means startups also continue to have mentorship and trial opportunities with JetBlue, and now those opportunities expand under Sky Leasing.
The move is a divergence from what the company said its plans were last year.
“We’ll continue to make investments that hopefully will pay off but will also enhance the travel experience,” JetBlue’s CFO told investors during a call in February 2024.
IAG (International Airlines Group), on the other hand, recently dedicated €200 million ($216.5 million) over five years for a new venture capital arm to invest in startups. Other travel companies that have venture arms include Amadeus, United Airlines, and Alaska Airlines.
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