AeroCloud, a cloud-native airport management software startup used at dozens of airports around the world, has raised $12.6 million in Series A funding.
Founded in Chester, UK in 2019, AeroCloud already works with Manchester and Eindhoven airports in Europe, and counts Tampa and John Wayne airports in the US as customers, with approximately 150 million customers each year. It handles 10,000 passengers.
Essentially, AeroCloud promises that data will be accessible to all stakeholders via the cloud, and will enable common airport services such as automated gate allocation for flights and optimizing spare gate capacity to increase revenue. It has features to support your use case.
AeroCloud platform
The company also says it will use the smarts of machine learning to provide customers with forecasts using historical data, such as estimating passenger numbers at a particular time of year.
“By bringing AI and machine learning into our intelligent airport management system, airport operations teams plan less and do more,” said George, co-founder and CEO of AeroCloud. Richardson explained to TechCrunch. “Airports routinely have a series of tasks that require varying degrees of human intervention. Using AI can reduce the cognitive load on individuals and teams, freeing up airport time. We can focus on other priorities.”
The AeroCloud platform also meshes key data, such as the percentage of passengers currently on board a particular plane and scheduled departure times, to help predict whether a plane is likely to depart on time. . In addition, gates can be automatically reassigned to arriving planes if there are still delayed planes remaining at the scheduled arrival gate.
“These scenarios happen 100 times a day for our customers, and AI can always beat the human brain to come up with a solution,” added Richardson.
On the surface, the airport management software market may seem like a somewhat niche area, but Richardson points to data that highlights the potential for new players in the space.
“It may look niche in terms of how many airports there are in the world, but the niche potential is huge, and it’s a $20 billion worth of market,” Richardson said of internal competitors. I quoted figures obtained through data analysis. “For example, there are 508 commercial service airports and more than 3,500 non-commercial service airports in the United States alone. We have products that fit most of these customers. It’s about creating a network of airports to communicate and share valuable information with each other as we reach a critical mass of customers with our system.”
cloud native
The airport management software space includes traditional incumbents such as Amadeus and SITA, but just as nearly every young start-up seeks to supplant the long-established status quo, AeroCloud , touts cloud-native credentials as a key selling point to potential new customers. .
“Today, large airports rely on competitor systems originally built in the late 80s,” says Richardson. “This software has changed very little since then. We are still dependent on outdated software due to the challenging environment, large layers of management and perceived risk at the board level.”
The problem, according to Richardson, is that many legacy on-premises solutions don’t facilitate access to data, instead facilitating data silos through homegrown technology stacks. This becomes a problem in an airport environment where you need to act quickly to support many fluid scenarios. In diverted planes, for example when a nearby plane needs to land somewhere quickly due to an emergency, this includes various It involves multiple players in different sectors.
Having everyone on the same page and all accessing the same data and insights saves a lot of manual work.
“Previously, the operations team would call the airport and have everyone queue up,” says Richardson. “But with AeroCloud, the moment the FAA marks a flight as an inbound diversion, it notifies all stakeholders. and be automatically reminded of the protocol, which not only means that everyone knows what’s going on, but can also become an informant to prepare It is powerful because it allows the operations team to focus on their work instead of chasing people.”
If you want proof that the public cloud is where it is in 2023, $25 billion AeroCloud competitor Amadeus recently announced plans to move to the cloud as part of a three-year modernization effort.
To date, AeroCloud has raised about $3.4 million, and has raised another $12.6 million in bank funding, and the company will use this new funding to accelerate its expansion plans and “replace lethargic incumbents.” He said that he would continue his efforts to expel him. Specifically, AeroCloud is gearing up to double his customer base across its UK and US hubs to 80 by 2023, growing his customer base from his current 42 to over 100 by the end of the year. We aim to increase.
“We may be dealing primarily with passenger aircraft right now, but the addition of burgeoning cargo air traffic after COVID-19 and the introduction of drones within the next five to 10 years also We believe we will benefit from our network and this data,” said Richardson.
AeroCloud’s series A round was led by US VC firm Stage 2 Capital, with participation from Triple Point Ventures, I2BF Global Ventures, Praetura Ventures, Playfair Capital, and Haatch.
