Aero Ventures’ digital marketplace a ‘new era’ for transactions
Aero Ventures' new digital marketplace is designed to revolutionise aircraft transactions.
He describes it as a “powerful complement” to Aero Ventures’ advisory services – a platform designed to engage more owners and prospective buyers, with the goal of growing the business to more than $1bn in aircraft transactions per year.
Sergey Petrossov, managing partner at Aero Ventures, says the company’s new digital marketplace will help build deeper client relationships by enhancing – not replacing – the firm’s peer-to-peer aviation advisory model.
The digital platform provides owners with real-time valuations, access to off-market listings, ownership cost simulations and instant liquidity options. Rather than trying to take the human out of the process, it serves as an entry point for engagement, letting clients “window shop” and experiment with different ownership scenarios – just as successful real estate platforms have done to drive massive consumer interaction.
“Clients don’t necessarily want to call their broker every time they’re curious about a Challenger 350 or want to run the numbers on different ownership models,” says Petrossov, who founded the digital marketplace JetSmarter, which was acquired by Vista in 2019 and merged with XO with Petrossov at the helm. “But when they can explore on their own and simulate real scenarios, it sparks ideas and builds familiarity. That engagement naturally strengthens the human advisory relationship, so when they are ready to transact, they turn to the brand they’ve been interacting with all along.”
This self-directed engagement – whether browsing values, testing assumptions, or comparing aircraft categories – creates ongoing touchpoints between Aero Ventures and its clients. Over time, the company expects this to translate into stronger brand affinity and increased transaction flow.
Aero Ventures, founded by Bill Papariella, has completed more than $4bn in transactions and continues to focus on complex, high-value deals. Papariella emphasises that the marketplace is the client-facing extension of Aero Ventures’ brokerage and advisory business: “It makes trading more transparent, fast and engaging, while ensuring our clients still benefit from our team’s deep expertise, strategic capital and hands-on guidance.”
Petrossov joins Aero Ventures’ senior team alongside Jonah Adler, chief commercial officer and partner, who was previously CCO of Jet Edge International before its 2022 acquisition by Vista.
The “big differentiator,” according to Petrossov, is Aero Ventures’ ability to pair this digital experience with significant access to capital – offering bespoke finance solutions, including instant guaranteed purchase offers or bridge financing, to help clients move quickly when needed.
With the marketplace as the interactive front-end and Aero Ventures’ advisory team as the strategic back-end, the company aims to usher in a new era of engagement and efficiency in the $12–15bn pre-owned jet market.
