Canadian business leaders Calin Rovinescu and Mitch Garber named as advisors and investors of Jaunt Air Mobility

Jaunt Air Mobil­i­ty has announced that Calin Rovi­nes­cu, Air Canada’s recent­ly retired Pres­i­dent and Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer, and Mitch Gar­ber, a glob­al tech­nol­o­gy and growth cap­i­tal investor, have added their names as investors and advi­sors.

“We are extreme­ly pleased to have some­one of Cal­in’s extra­or­di­nary busi­ness and avi­a­tion expe­ri­ence sup­port Jaunt Air Mobil­i­ty,” said Mar­tin Peryea, CEO at Jaunt. 

“His vision and glob­al under­stand­ing of aero­space, avi­a­tion, and cap­i­tal mar­kets should help to accel­er­ate our evo­lu­tion as a lead­ing eVTOL com­pa­ny.”

Eric Cote, pres­i­dent of Jaunt Cana­da, added: “To have a high­ly suc­cess­ful tech­nol­o­gy and growth cap­i­tal investor such as Mitch Gar­ber also join us will add enor­mous val­ue to Jaunt’s future suc­cess.” 

Calin Rovi­nes­cu served as Pres­i­dent & CEO of Air Cana­da from 2009 to 2021, and also served as Chair­man of the Star Alliance Chief Exec­u­tive Board, the world’s largest glob­al air­line alliance, as well as Chair­man of the Board of Gov­er­nors of IATA. 

“I have been impressed both by Jaun­t’s inno­v­a­tive but prac­ti­cal air­craft design, com­bin­ing heli­copter and fixed-wing air­craft flight capa­bil­i­ties, and the team’s entre­pre­neur­ship and under­stand­ing of what is required for cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, com­mer­cial­i­sa­tion and mar­ket pen­e­tra­tion in this new and emerg­ing eVTOL indus­try,” said Calin Rovi­nes­cu. 

“I am espe­cial­ly pleased with the com­pa­ny’s plan to include Que­bec and Cana­da in the design and man­u­fac­ture of these air­craft involv­ing new bat­tery tech­nol­o­gy, dig­i­tal capa­bil­i­ty and advanced engi­neer­ing. 

“Jaunt will be a cat­a­lyst for qual­i­ty jobs with­in the green econ­o­my and will con­tin­ue to advance Cana­da as an inno­v­a­tive and trans­for­ma­tive glob­al aero­space play­er.”

Mitch Gar­ber has led pub­lic com­pa­nies on the Toron­to, Lon­don, and Nas­daq stock Exchanges. He is a fre­quent co-investor and board mem­ber in large pri­vate equi­ty trans­ac­tions along­side Apol­lo Glob­al Man­age­ment and TPG. 

Gar­ber com­ment­ed: “Cloud com­put­ing and mobile games are exam­ples of high growth areas where we have been for­tu­nate enough to back the right play­ers. 

“EVTOL air taxis is an obvi­ous growth area, and Jaunt Cana­da caught our atten­tion with its new form of green, clean avi­a­tion tech­nol­o­gy. 

“It is an oppor­tu­ni­ty to build a trans­porta­tion sys­tem that facil­i­tates a green­er and more effi­cient glob­al econ­o­my, by lever­ag­ing the unique assets of Cana­di­ans and our aero­space her­itage, and the expe­ri­enced team at Jaunt demon­strates an in-depth under­stand­ing of the busi­ness and the future.” 

In Feb­ru­ary, Avports signed a Mem­o­ran­dum of Under­stand­ing with Jaunt Air Mobil­i­ty to join its Access Sky­ways infra­struc­ture alliance and sup­port the inte­gra­tion of eVTOL air­craft with air­ports and the avi­a­tion ecosys­tem.

In Jan­u­ary, Jaunt Air Mobil­i­ty signed a Let­ter of Intent with on-demand avi­a­tion com­pa­ny Flap­per to pro­vide up to 25 Jaunt Jour­ney eVTOL air­craft for use in Latin Amer­i­can mar­kets.