Private electric jets are here: You might even be able to buy one soon.

• Author: Petersen, Joshua

AFTER YEARS OF SUCCESS as an entrepreneur and investor, Chad Swensen has his head in the clouds.

As co-founder and managing partner of Valkyrie Group, a Park City-based venture capital investment firm, Swensen invested $10 million of Series A funding in the electric jet company Panhwar Jet in August 2020. Now based in Heber, Panhwar aims to break new ground in electric aviation, disrupting an industry ripe with opportunities for innovation.

Before funding Panhwar, Valkyrie already held assets in real estate and biotech, including a $25 million investment in the hair growth formula company Anelra Pharma. "The focus of Valkyrie has been to look at and Invest in technologies and teams that are innovating in interesting spaces," Swensen says.

Valkyrie hoped their next interesting space would be, well, space--aerospace, that is. After setting a goal to break into the industry, Swensen discovered the perfect opportunity near Valkyrie's other location in Newport Beach, California.

ELECTRIC FLIGHT

For Panhwar Jet co-founders Ayisha Fareed and Nick Panhwar, an unexpected Linkedln message from Swensen led to a partnership that allowed their company to reach new heights. They had developed the company at the Startup Institute at California State University Fullerton and had already heard from several investors worldwide, but none were the right fit. Then they met Swensen.

"We wanted to bootstrap it," Fareed explains, at least until an initial flight could prove their concept. Swensen, though, quickly won over the co-founders. Fareed considers their relationship with Swensen a "spiritual connection" and says they feel closer to family than typical investors. "I liked his spontaneous energy, and it just synced with what we wanted to do," she says.

Now, Panhwar is directing that energy toward a prototype of the ElectroBird, a self-charging private jet that runs entirely on electricity. If their innovative technology is successful, Panhwar will model a sustainable way forward in an industry that still overwhelmingly relies on fossil fuels--US airlines used more than 18.2 billion gallons of fuel in 2019.

As both the private sector and governments worldwide increasingly recognize the impact of climate change, the multi-billion dollar aviation industry has the need-and opportunity--to change. Fareed says that Panhwar's clean, sustainable technology can lead the way. "We want to solve that problem," she says.

AUTONOMOUS SKIES

Panhwar Jet's goal is simple: fly...