Platform Capital (Platform), a leading growth markets investor, is pleased to announce its investment in Leo Flight Corp., the world’s first flying electric jet car company.
The company has developed the Leo Coupe, an all-electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) flying car that can travel 300 miles at 250mph on a single charge with a capacity of three (3) passengers and conveniently fits in a 2-car garage. Leo Flight Corp. is also developing VertiStop, a small, modular landing pad that doubles as a charging system to be proliferated easily and broadly, creating near-instant infrastructure in urban, suburban, and rural areas, in parallel with its Leo Coupe flying cars.
The Leo Coupe was developed to exceed existing competitors using proven, compact, and efficient propulsion housed within the body of the aircraft. In recognition and acknowledgment of the company’s innovation and cutting-edge category technology, it emerged as the winner of Future Scaping Our Skies, a competition sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), as one (1) of the nine (9) awardees from 3,000 total competitors.
We at Platform understand and believe the significant impact the introduction of Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), mobile phones, and broadband adoption had on the continent particularly in leapfrogging our growth and development story – being a major catalyst and driver of the growth other sectors have experienced in the last two (2) decades. Nigeria in particular went from having under 400,000 connected fixed lines at the end of 2000 to almost 200 million mobile phone connections as at the end of 2021, according to the Nigerian Communication Commission, thanks to the introduction of the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) in 2001. This phenomenon birthed new segments across tech and tech-enabled services, has driven an increase in trade & commerce, improved financial inclusion levels, provided employment and formalized the informal sector to the gig economy, increased easier access to health care, facilitated interconnectivity with the global community.
Fixing urban mobility can potentially have the same level of impact on the lives of Africans. For a continent that has struggled with bridging its infrastructure gap and fixing how people and goods move from point to point, finding alternative ways to deliver well-functioning transportation systems en masse over the long term is critical to our sustained prosperity and wellbeing as a people. If we solve our urban mobility issues and rethink our approach to it, associated sectors and verticals will invariably be positively impacted – commerce & trade, healthcare, food & agriculture and as a result, money that would have been spent on building roads can now be diverted to building cheaper, scalable mobility solutions as the world is rapidly tilting towards being smart and technology-driven. Well-concerted efforts are required across the stakeholder spectrum to deliver this innovation on the continent, starting from the government – helping shape regulation, infrastructure development – plan, design, integrate new methods and assets into urban and regional planning frameworks.
Pete Bitar and Carlos Salaff co-founded Leo Flight Corp. in 2020 – starting as a joint venture between Pete’s company, Electric Jet Aircraft, and Carlos’s company, SALAFF Automotive, shortly after which they decided to design and build eVTOL flying cars. They both have extensive experience in mobility design, engineering, and production.
As part of the transaction, Dr. Akintoye Akindele, Chairman of Platform Capital will be joining the advisory board of LEO Flight Corp. to provide support and guidance to Pete, Carlos, and the rest of the team in achieving this ambitious but crucial goal of revolutionizing mobility for the world’s urban cities.
“As cities grow and evolve to become more modern and adapted for life as we know it today and what it would be in the future, the way we think of infrastructure also has to change,” said Dr. Akintoye Akindele, Chairman of Platform Capital. “For decades, mankind has not fully leapfrogged how it moves from point to point even if urbanization has been on a consistent upward trajectory for a long time. Urban mobility is key to the design, development, operation, and sustainability of cities, both in developed and developing countries. The work Leo Flight Corp. is doing in changing how people and things move is simply mind-blowing, and we are proud to embark on this journey with the team. Electric flying vehicles will improve air quality in cities and deliver more convenient means of transportation. Electric flying cars will produce zero carbon emissions when flying, thereby reducing air pollution considerably and by extension, creating a strong environmental impact. As with our other investments globally, we will seek to work with the team to explore, research, understand and design how Leo Flight Corp.’s technology can be transferred and applied in Africa, as the continent is also facing rapid urbanization in its major cities.
“We are excited to partner with Platform Capital, a company that sees an opportunity to utilize LEO Flight’s technology to transform human mobility in Africa and beyond,” said Pete Bitar and Carlos Salaff, Co-Founders of Leo Flight Corp.
About LEO Flight Corp.
LEO Flight Corp. is the world’s first flying electric jet car company developing the LEO Coupe – an all-electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) 3-passenger flying car that will travel 300 miles at 250mph on a single charge.
About Platform Capital
Platform Capital is a growth market-focused, sector agnostic, principal investment, and advisory firm. We deploy patient, value accretive capital alongside international and local value investors to create champion businesses with the potential for regional or global scale. The platform also provides end-to-end bespoke Corporate Finance & Capital Markets advisory services. What makes us different is our obsession with changing the African narrative.
