AeroCloud, a cloud-based airport management platform, raises $12.6 million • TechCrunch
Cloud aviationa cloud-based airport management software startup used by dozens of airports around the world, has raised $12.6 million in a Series A funding round.
Founded in Chester, UK in 2019, AeroCloud says it already works with Manchester and Eindhoven airports in Europe, while in the US it considers Tampa International and John Wayne Airport as customers, handling handle about 150 million passengers per year on a large scale.
At its core, AeroCloud promises all stakeholders access to data via the cloud, with features that support common airport use cases such as automatic gate allocation for flights and optimize redundant port capacity to increase revenue.
AeroCloud Platform
The company also says it harnesses machine learning intelligence to serve its customers forecasts using historical data, such as estimating passenger numbers for a particular time of year.
“By bringing AI and machine learning into our intelligent airport management system, we are enabling airport operations teams to plan less and act more,” said George Richardson, co-founder cum CEO of AeroCloud explained to TechCrunch. “Airports have a wide range of tasks that require varying degrees of human interaction on a daily basis. With AI, we can offload that cognitive load on individuals and groups, and help free up an airport’s time to focus on other priority challenges.”
The AeroCloud platform also meshes important data such as the percentage of passengers currently boarding a particular plane and when the plane is departing, allowing it to be predicted whether the plane is likely to depart on time. . In addition, it can automatically reassign ports to incoming planes if its scheduled arrival gate still has a delayed aircraft.
Richardson added: “These situations happen 100 times a day for our customers, and AI can always beat a human to find a solution.
On the surface, the airport management software market may seem a bit too vertical, but Richardson points to the data to highlight the potential for a new player in the space.
“You can see a niche in terms of the number of airports in the world, but the potential for that niche is huge — we see a $20 billion market,” Richardson said, citing the figures. obtained from analysis of internal competitor data. “For example, in the US alone, there are 508 commercial service airports and more than 3,500 non-commercial service airports. We have the right products for most of these customers. However, that’s not even the fun part – the really cool part is that as we reach a large number of key customers on our network, we will create a network of airports to communicate and share valuable information with each other.”
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Airport management software space includes legacy incumbents such as Amadeus And SITAbut like every young upstart looking to replace the long standing status quo, AeroCloud advertises its cloud-native credentials as a key selling point for new customers.
“The major airports are now relying on our competitors’ systems, originally built in the late 80s. The software has barely changed since —” says Richardson. they are static and not in the cloud. Like many overlooked and underserved industries, airports are extremely challenging environments to implement change, with many layers of management and perceived risks at the board level. , which is why they still rely on old-fashioned software.”
The problem, according to Richardson, is that many on-premises legacy solutions don’t make data access easy, instead leveraging data silos through homegrown technology stacks. This is a problem in an airport environment that often requires quick action to support any agile situation. For example, with diverted planes, where an aircraft in the vicinity needs to land quickly somewhere due to an emergency, this involves many players from different departments including ports, customs, passport control, baggage handling and all the rest.
Putting everyone on the same page, with access to all the same data and insights, saves a lot of manual work.
“Previously, this would have been done by the operations team calling all over the airport and asking people to line up,” says Richardson. “However, with AeroCloud, we know and notify all stakeholders as soon as FAA Mark the flight as an inbound navigation. The platform can let all teams know exactly what’s going on and automatically remind them of the protocol. Not only is this powerful because it means everyone knows what’s going on, but it’s also powerful because your executive team can now focus on their work, rather than providing the information. believe and chase people around to get ready.”
If any proof is needed that the public cloud will be where it is by 2023, Amadeus, a $25 billion AeroCloud competitor, recently announced plans to put itself in the cloud as part of a three-year modernization effort
AeroCloud previously raised about $3.4 million, and with another $12.6 million in the bank, the company said it will use the new funding to advance its expansion plans. and continue to promote “replacing slow-moving companies”. More specifically, AeroCloud is gearing up to double its headcount to 80 people by 2023 across their centers in the UK and US, and is aiming to grow the facility. its customers to more than 100 — up from 42 now — by the end of the year.
“For now, we can mainly handle passenger aircraft, but we believe the addition of explosive post-Covid air traffic and the introduction of drones in the next 5-10 years will also benefit from this network and our data,” said Richardson.
AeroCloud’s Series A round was led by US venture capital firm Stage 2 Capital, with participation from Triple Point Ventures, I2BF Global Ventures, Praetura Ventures, Playfair Capital and Haatch.
