While Jay Z has mostly stepped away from the rap game, he has doubled down on the investment game. It seems to be paying off, as one of his biggest investments has achieved a coveted $1 billion valuation. To be exact, “Uber for private jets” startup JetSmarter was valued at $1.5 billion before raising $105 million in Series C funding.
JetSmarter works via an app where users can fly for free on private jets, but only after paying $15,000 for a “core membership.” Users can then spend more to bring along non-members or charter completely private jets. The company eventually plans to expand to become less exclusive, but for now they’re focused on expanding to more cities (80 to 100 by the end of 2017)
Sean “Jay Z” Carter was an early investor in the company, but reportedly increased his investment during the most recent round of investing. He’s joined by investment firms, equity funds, and a Saudi Royal Family. It also isn’t the first private jet company Jay Z has invested it, although it is by far the most successful. Beacon and BlackJet were two other private aviation startups backed by Jigga which eventually failed.
Users of the service so far include Conor McGregor and DJ Khaled, the latter of which left a glowing review via his Instagram which you can see below.
[via TechCrunch]