2025 stands out as a particularly transformative year for our team. From a significant acquisition to celebrating remarkable portfolio achievements, we're continuing to evolve.
The biggest milestone for our team in 2025 came in May when JetBlue Ventures was acquired by SKY Leasing, a leading aviation investment manager. This next era positions us to expand our impact across the travel and transportation ecosystem, combining venture capital insights with SKY's deep industry relationships, global reach, and institutional bona fides. As part of the acquisition, in September, we officially rebranded to SKY VC, launching a new identity that reflects our expanded capabilities, global growth plans, and vision for the future.
Growing Our Team
New Leadership
In June, we welcomed Arielle Ring as our President, with Amy Burr moving to the CEO role. Arielle brings extensive experience in travel and transportation, and her leadership is already shaping our approach to portfolio support and industry engagement.
SKY Leasing
As part of SKY Leasing, we’re fortunate to work alongside their team of more than 40 professionals spread across the US, Europe, and Asia. We're now working closely with the experienced leadership team at SKY Leasing, including:
Austin Wiley, CEO of SKY Leasing, brings more than 15 years of leasing industry experience.
Matthew Crawford, Co-Chief Investment Officer of SKY Leasing, is a member of the executive and investment committee and is responsible for leading the company’s investment and funding strategy. He focuses on deal sourcing, underwriting, investor relations, and day-to-day operations of the firm.
Portfolio Company Achievements
Our portfolio companies had positive, innovative impacts in 2025.
Funding & Acquisitions
- Shift5 raised $75M in Series C funding.
- i6 raised $20M in Series B funding.
- Joby announced its acquisition of Blade's passenger business.
- Assaia raised $26.6M in Series B funding.
Strategic Partnerships
- Aether Fuels signed a memorandum of understanding for sustainable aviation fuel with Singapore Airlines.
- Bizly announced a partnership with Booking.com for Business.
- NLX announced a collaboration with Saks Fifth Avenue and AWS.
- Pulsora announced a strategic partnership with Climatiq to eliminate reporting bottlenecks for enterprises.
- Shift5 announced a partnership with ForeFlight to bring real-time alerting to military aircraft crew, and a partnership with Avionca.
- Tomorrow.io announced a partnership with Palantir to operationalize global weather intelligence and agentic AI.
- Volantio announced a 10-year extension of its partnership with Alaska Airlines, a partnership with Navitaire, and a partnership with Southwest Airlines.
Product Milestones
- Aether Fuels announced its one-barrel-per-day integrated Aurora plant.
- EVIO came out of stealth and announced the launch of its hybrid-electric regional aircraft.
Industry Recognition
- Air Company and Aether Fuels were featured on TIME's top greentech companies of 2025.
- Air Company's AirMade SAF was featured as one of TIME's best inventions of 2025.
Strengthened Platform, Expanded Capabilities
As we head into 2026 under the SKY VC banner, we celebrate a decade of investing in transformative technologies and are excited for what’s next. This new chapter opens new doors for collaboration to support the travel and transportation ecosystem.
We’re excited to take our innovation programs and strategic investments to the next level in 2026, and we will continue fostering a community of founders reshaping the future of travel.
Thank you to our portfolio companies, partners, and the broader innovation ecosystem for making 2025 such a big year. We look forward to what we'll build together for years to come.
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