Kanika Tekriwal, JetSetGo founder who built India’s first aircraft leasing company

Success Story of Kanika Tekriwal, JetSetGo founder

Here we are going to share an inspirational success story of woman entrepreneur who built a ₹ 150 crore turnover India’s first aircraft leasing company and private aviation company starting on Uber model.

Kanika Tekriwal is the founder of Jetsetgo, a private aviation company in India. Jetsetgo is the India’s first marketplace of private-chartered planes and helicopters.

She changed the whole concept that if you can’t afford a plane then that doesn’t mean you can’t fly in one.

At the age of 21, she beat cancer & started the company in 2014. Naysayers surrounded her. Now she is the youngest on the Kotak Wealth Hurun- Leading Wealthy Women, 2020 list.

She is a woman entrepreneur, who built an ₹ 150 crore-turnover first Indian aircraft leasing company starting on Uber model.

She proved that when you dare to dream big, you would join the rank of high flyers. After surviving from cancer, she ventured into the Indian aviation industry without owning a single aircraft. She planned to build a charter aircraft business like Ola & Uber.

Early life of Kanika Tekriwal:

Kanika was born in Marwari business family in Bhopal. Her family owned Maruti dealership across the country.

After the division her father Anil Tekriwal started real estate business, her mother was homemaker. She has a younger brother named Kanishk.

Just like typical Marwari families, she grew up by learning business lessons. Up to 9^th standard she studied in Lawrence Public School in Ooty.

She completed her remaining studies from Jawaharlal Nehru Higher Senior Secondary School. They shifted to Bhopal at that time. She completed her graduation in economics & diploma in visual communication side by side from Mumbai.

After that, she did MBA from Coventry University in London. After masters, she worked in aerospace industry.

She diagnosed with 2nd stage Hodgkins Lymphoma at the age of 22. During the treatment when the doctor said that she had very less time, she replied, “I will come & see you after 40-years.

Not as a patient but just to prove you that I am alive & kicking.” With that confidence, she defeated the cancer in one year & get back to work on her start up.

Entrepreneurial Journey – JetSetGo:

She had skilled experience of 7 to 8 years in the aviation industries. During that, she noticed that only few people afforded to own a private jet due to maintenance & working cost.

That is why she decided to give private jet experience to the person who can’t afford a private jet.

That was owner’s profitable instead of cost centres. She founded JetSetGo in 2014. At the early stage, she had two big problems in the aviation industry.

At that time she did not have enough money, she started it with 5600 rs. Now she is earning more the seven-digit income.

At the early stage, she had to face many problems in her path. During first six months, she could not found a single customer.

For the first two years, she took advance from client & credit from vendors to run business. She offered consultancy and advised people in buying airplanes according to their needs.

Initially she planned to purchase a plane & then rent it out. However, due to some unavoidable reasons, she dropped the idea of purchasing the plane.

After that, she developed another business model that was helpful in growing her business. Sudheer Perla, a chartered accountant and an Oxford management graduate joined the company as a co-founder in 2014.

She started providing luxury service to the customer & some profit to the owner of the jet. The combination of advanced technology & smart management reduced the cost of maintenance.

It increased the airtime, reduced ground time & made charter profitable. She offered customer to fly more in the same amount they spent earlier.

Use of technology made them successful. It is easy to book private jet with mobile app. Now; JetSetGo has grown into Rs. 150 crore-turnover company with around 200 employees & offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai & Hyderabad.

Last year they purchased their own aircraft. During 2020-21, they handled 1-lakh flyers & operated 6000 flights.

Mostly their clients are corporates, celebrities, politicians, and people of importance. JetSetGo offers a range of charter flights starting from six-seaters to eighteen-seater aircraft.

Delhi-Mumbai, Hyderabad-Delhi & Mumbai-Bengaluru are their most flown sectors. Approx. 5% of their flights are used for medical emergency. They are planning to start a shuttle service between two points within a city.

Recently, they started it in Mumbai. Charges of that will be cheap like from Rs 1000 to Rs 2500 depending upon the distance.

They planned to use a helicopter for this service. They tested it for feasibility and push it as they believe air taxis will become the norm in the future.

Achievements of Kanika Tekriwal:

• BBC chose her as one of the 100 inspirational women in the world.
• Forbes Asia recognised her as one of the 30 under leading entrepreneur.
• She received the National Entrepreneur Award from Indian Government.
• She is on the list of CNN’s 20 under 40.

We hope you find this inspiring success story of Kanika Tekriwal, founder of JetSetGo who built a first Indian aircraft leasing company.

We also hope you find woman entrepreneur who built a Rs 150 crore turnover India’s first aircraft leasing company and private aviation company starting on Uber model useful and inspiring through your entrepreneurial journey and will keep you inspired.

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