An Atlanta-based private jet startup announced that it plans to go public.
The company, Volato, launched in 2021 to sell fractional shares of private aircraft, using a fleet of four-seat HondaJets. It also offers on-demand charters and jet cards to use aircraft when not being flown by their fractional owners. Last year, Volato acquired Houston aircraft management company Gulf Coast Aviation.
“We’re at a point in time where the recent experiences of the pandemic and commercial travel have led more and more fliers to try private and to consider fractional ownership,” said Volato CEO and co-founder Matt Liotta, who will lead the combined company, during an investor call on Wednesday morning.
Instead of a traditional initial public offering or IPO, Volato will go public through a Special Purpose Acquisition Company or SPAC. Sometimes called “blank check companies,” SPACs are formed to gather investors for a merger with a company for the purpose of taking it public.
Volato has a fleet of 25 aircraft with another 23 HondaJets on order. It also last year ordered four larger Gulfstream G280 aircraft to be delivered starting in early 2024. The company has a base in the Atlanta area at DeKalb-Peachtree Airport and other bases in St. Augustine and Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Baltimore; Houston and Carlsbad, California.
In May, Volato said it may relocate its headquarters, naming several states it was considering including Florida and Texas, to “take the company through its next stage of growth and better serve its growing customer base.”
Volato had 2022 revenue of $96 million. The company did not disclose its bottom line results. The merger with PROOF Acquisition Corp. I, a SPAC listed on the New York Stock Exchange as PACI, gives Volato a pre-transaction equity value of $190 million, and puts the combined company at a pro-forma enterprise value of $261 million. PROOF co-founder Thanasis Delistathis said in a written statement that Volato fits with its strategy of pursuing companies “with a clear path to near-term profitability.”
Volato shares are expected to be traded under the ticker symbol “SOAR,” and will allow the company to accelerate its strategy and continue growing, the company said.
“Volato has shown that they have the entrepreneurial mindset and nimbleness to make a mark in an industry dominated by a few large successful companies but cluttered with smaller companies with failed or failing business models,” said PROOF Acquisition Corp. I CEO John Backus during the investor call. A PROOF venture capital fund also closed on $48 million in equity financing in Volato as part of the transaction.
Volato has an “asset-light” business model, with a fleet of aircraft it initially purchases and then sells to fractional customers for five-year periods. Its charter flights are operated by an air carrier subsidiary, G C Aviation Inc., or by a vendor air carrier.
The deal, which has been approved by the boards of Volato and PACI, is subject to approval of PACI stockholders and other closing conditions, and is expected to be completed this year.
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