Monday, February 7, 2011

Aircell Scores $35M

Aircell, the provider of the Gogo in-flight Internet access services, announced this morning that it has raised $35M in a new financing round. The round came from existing investors, including Ripplewood Holdings, Blumenstein/Thorne Information Partners and other investment entities associated with Oakleigh Thorne, as well as Aircell's management team. Aircell, which has operations in Broomfield, Colorado as well as Itasca, Illinois, has now raised more than $500M in funding. In an interview with Techrockies, Michael Small, the firm's President and CEO, said that the funding marks the move of the firm from a startup to an "ongoing, established operational firm." Small said that Aircell's businesses, had an "fabulous year in 2010" and now has its service installed on 1100 commercial aircraft in the U.S., and expects to install over three aircraft per day this year.