- Blade is a transportation startup that offers on-demand flights to destinations like the Hamptons.
- It just raised an additional $38 million in venture funding.
- We took a helicopter ride with Blade in 2015 — here's what it was like.
Getting to the Hamptons can be a real drag. Blade, an aviation startup cofounded by former Sony and Warner Music Group exec Rob Wiesenthal and GroupMe cofounder Steve Martocci, aims to make it a little easier on you.
Blade uses an app to crowdsource flights on helicopters and seaplanes that you can book seats on in an instant. Though Blade started out with flights to the Hamptons, which remains one of its most popular destinations, the startup has expanded to offer flights in many weekend getaway spots, including Nantucket, the Jersey Shore, and around different parts of Los Angeles.
Tickets range from $494 to $695 for a trip from Manhattan to the Hamptons. A one-way ticket on Blade One, the company's private jet service from New York to Miami and Palm Beach, costs about $2,200. You can even snag a seat on a helicopter going to one of the New York area airports, a five-minute ride called Blade Bounce that starts at $195.
The company just raised $38 million in a Series B funding round led by Colony NorthStar and Lerer Hippeau. Airbus Helicopters and LionTree Ventures also contributed to the round.
According to a press release from the company, the new funding will go towards expanding Blade's routes. Blade and Airbus will partner to launch an intra-city helicopter service in a to-be-determined market overseas. Blade added that Colony will be helping to identify future potential landing sites for eVTOLs, or flying taxis, which both companies see as an important foundation for future transportation initiatives.
Blade has raised $60 million in venture funding to date, the company said. Past investors include Discovery Communications' David Zaslav, Google's Eric Schmidt, IAC's Barry Diller, and iHeart Media's Bob Pittman.
Blade treated us to a trip to the Hamptons on a late summer evening in 2015. Here's what it was like:
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Our journey began in Blade's 34th Street lounge, where we found a comfortable setup of couches and stools along a sleek bar. "You can't beat the on-demand aspect," Jarrett, a Blade customer who works in Manhattan real estate, told me. Blade has a network of seven lounges in four states.
Customer experience (or C/X in Blade lingo) representatives Jessica Rooney and Erin Mulcahy were there to help. They're wearing uniforms that were custom designed by Jimmy Choo founder Tamara Mellon just for Blade.
The C/X team has worn several different retro-inspired uniforms. "My inspiration for Blade harkens back to the days when I was a young child and my parents would dress me up to get on a plane," Wiesenthal, Blade's cofounder and CEO, said to Business Insider in 2016.
He added: "It was the golden age of aviation — the '60s to early '70's, the Jack Kennedy, Frank Sinatra era — when getting on a jet plane was a big deal and an adventure. Not everybody did it. And there was always a story attached to it."
See the rest of the story at Business Insider