BP Ventures, the corporate venturing vehicle for oil and gas company BP, invested $10m to lead a $20m series B round for UK-based jet charter service Victor on Monday.
The rest of the series B capital was supplied by undisclosed family offices and existing shareholders, and the round took Victor’s overall funding to approximately $44.5m.
Victor launched its consumer-focused online jet chartering platform in 2011 and has built a network of more than 200 aviation partners. It will use the funding to launch a business-to-business service and expand its existing service internationally.
BP Ventures made its investment as part of a commercial partnership that will involve Air BP, its aviation fuel division, becoming Victor’s preferred fuel supplier for flights arranged through its platform which go from Air BP locations.
Clive Jackson, Victor’s founder and chief executive, said: “I am proud to welcome BP Ventures as a strategic, cornerstone investor. Their track-record for identifying forward-thinking innovative businesses that can deliver sustained growth speaks for itself.
“Receiving backing from a major, legitimate institutional investor like BP is a strong endorsement of our management team and our strategic vision to reshape the general aviation market. This is a hugely exciting step forward in the company’s evolution.”
Victor has not revealed much about its earlier investors, but it received $13m in funding in 2015 that it said was provided by “investor customers,” after securing £5m ($8.3m at contemporary rates) in a 2014 series A round featuring Clive Jackson and angel investors including Andrew Pisker.