Surf Air Gets a $200 Million Lift, Plans to Go Public

Leslie Ignacio

Leslie Ignacio is dot.LA's editorial intern. She is a recent California State University, Northridge graduate and previously worked for El Nuevo Sol, Telemundo and NBC and was named a Chips Quinn Scholar in 2019. As a bilingual journalist, she focuses on covering diversity in news. She's a Los Angeles native who enjoys trips to Disneyland in her free time.

Surf Air Gets a $200 Million Lift, Plans to Go Public

Subscription commuter airline Surf Air has always been favored by wealthy tech executives; now it wants to bring its service to the masses and it's secured a $200 million investment to do it, with an eye toward going public.

The Santa Monica-based company is backed by Global Emerging Markets Group, which has committed to providing the company $50 million once it's listed.


The remaining funds will be distributed over the next three years. CEO Sudhin Shahani shared with dot.LA that they plan to go public through either a direct listing, IPO or SPAC merger but have not yet finalized their decision.

Surf Air CEO, Sudhin Shahani

The company wants to use the money to create a zero-emission fleet, bring down the cost of service — now starting around $2,000 — and increase ridership. They are appealing to people that are taking short jaunts under 400 miles.

"As we go through the process of electrification, which significantly makes the cost cheaper and has been moved to shorter routes, we also aim to replace driving," said Shahani.

Earlier this year Surf Air acquired flight-booking platform BlackBird as it beefed up its appeal to wealthy leisure travelers. It also added Airbnb's former global head of transportation Fred Reid as its new chief strategy officer, a nod to its international ambitions.

The investment comes as commercial airlines have been pummeled by the pandemic. Last month, the company began offering charter flights for weekend getaways — a departure from their regular subscription model. And it's teamed up with AutoCamp to offer "glamping" packages as business passengers have declined.

Surf Air currently offers subscriptions for a flat monthly fee, ranging from $2,000 a month per member to $5,000 a month for companies with multiple users.

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Energy Shares Wants to Offer You a Chance to Invest in Green Energy Startups

David Shultz

David Shultz reports on clean technology and electric vehicles, among other industries, for dot.LA. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Outside, Nautilus and many other publications.

Energy Shares Wants to Offer You a Chance to Invest in Green Energy Startups
Photo by Red Zeppelin on Unsplash

The Inflation Reduction Act contains almost $400 billion in funding for clean energy initiatives. There’s $250 billion for energy projects. $23 billion for transportation and EVs. $46 billion for environment. $21 billion for agriculture, and so on. With so much cash flowing into the sector, the possibilities for investment and growth are gigantic.

These investment opportunities, however, have typically been inaccessible for everyday retail investors until much later in a company’s development–after an IPO, usually. Meaning that the best returns are likely to be captured by banks and other institutions who have the capital and financing to invest large sums of money earlier in the process.

That’s where Pasadena-based Energy Shares comes in. The company wants to help democratize access to these investment opportunities and simultaneously give early-stage utility-scale energy projects another revenue stream.

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Why These Ukrainian Entrepreneurs Are Making LA Their Home

Aisha Counts
Aisha Counts is a business reporter covering the technology industry. She has written extensively about tech giants, emerging technologies, startups and venture capital. Before becoming a journalist she spent several years as a management consultant at Ernst & Young.
Why These Ukrainian Entrepreneurs Are Making LA Their Home
Joey Mota

Fleeing war and chasing new opportunities, more than a dozen Ukrainian entrepreneurs have landed in Los Angeles, finding an unexpected community in the city of dreams. These entrepreneurs have started companies that are collectively worth more than $300 million, in industries ranging from electric vehicle charging stations to audience monetization platforms to social networks.

Dot.LA spent an evening with this group of Ukrainian citizens, learning what it was like to build startups in Ukraine, to cope with the unimaginable fear of fleeing war, and to garner the resilience to rebuild.

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