Uber is nice. Sometimes you just need a ride to the airport, or home from the bar, or to work if you miss the light rail in Denver because it left early, and no trains are coming for a few hours, and it’s about 3 degrees outside. (Uh, or so I’ve heard.)

But if Jay-Z has his way, and you have a lot of money, you can go ahead and Uber (well, UberBLACK) to the airport and then JetSmart off to your location of choice. He’s increased his investment in JetSmarter, a company looking to offer ride-shares on private jets, which sounds crazy at first, and then just kind of gets crazier. Unless, of course, you’re in the target market, in which case it’s a concept that promises quite a bit of utility.

As CEO Sergey Petrossov told TechCrunch, the latest round of funding will go towards expanding their global reach:

JetSmarter has raised $105 million in Series C funding, at a $1.5 billion pre-money valuation, to build its marketplace for private jet services, according to Sergey Petrossov, the startup’s founder and CEO.

The massive funding round will be used primarily for global expansion of JetSmarter in Asia and Latin America, Petrossov said, and increasing the number of routes and flights available to JetSmarter members in the U.S.

Now, it’s going to cost you quite a bit more than the standard surge pricing, of course.

The company’s app…allows travelers to book a seat on a private jet via the company’s JetShuttle service, or to charter an entire plane if their entourage rolls deep.

While anyone can download and evaluate its app, before flying JetSmarter, members go through a light background check then pay $15,000 for a “core membership” in the first year they join. Members then get a seat on a wide selection of flights “free,” but have to pay for companion tickets if they want to bring a non-member along or pay to charter whole planes.

Fear not, though, if you don’t happen to have 15 stacks laying around the house, you still might have an option in the near future:

The company is hoping to go even further in that direction with something like “on-demand” access to seats on a select number of private flights for non-members. They would pay basically $1 per mile for shorter trips, like Boston to New York, potentially.

Petrossov said, “Everything we do is about making flying fun again.”

If they could somehow target folks who just walked off the plane after a three+ hour coach flight on any normal carrier, they could probably do a brisk business. It’ll be interesting to see if JetSmarter can take off (I’m so sorry) from here. Jay-Z is a big-name backer, and that brand recognition is certainly a good thing. But this is a niche business. A wealthy niche, for sure, but niche nevertheless.

[TechCrunch]

About Jay Rigdon

Jay is a columnist at Awful Announcing. He is not a strong swimmer. He is probably talking to a dog in a silly voice at this very moment.