Charter Broker Victor Acquires YoungJets, More Funding

Private jet booking firm Victor acquired Santa Barbara, Calif.-based private jet charter services provider YoungJets, the companies announced today. YoungJets founder and CEO David Young was also named Victor’s senior vice president for the U.S. market, leading the YoungJets team through the company integration and market expansion.

In addition, Victor secured $5 million in funding from investor customers, augmenting an $8 million mezzanine funding round announced in late March that enabled the London-based company to expand into the U.S. According to Victor, “These funds will be used for customer acquisition and scaling of the technology to meet growing demand. As the company continues to expand globally, it will be pursuing institutional funding later this year.”

Young will focus on building Victor’s North American footprint, overseeing business development and operations. Meanwhile, Levent Edepli—formerly of Sentient Jet, Jet Edge and more recently Jet Linx—also joined Victor to oversee logistics and operations for North America. As Victor’s vice president of operations and customer service for North America, he will focus on developing and managing supplier relationships and operations.

"Victor is focused on expanding its global business in a manner that maximizes operations efficiency and customer service expertise at market entry; and the addition of our funding, the YoungJets team and Levent does just that," said Victor CEO Clive Jackson. "David Young has an incredible reputation in the entertainment industry and brings a specialized team that expertly handles complex travel for high-profile jet charter clients. Bringing both David and Levent into the executive ranks further rounds out our management team with world-class talent in the aviation market.”