Estonian-founded SkySelect has secured €7,8 million in funding for its AI-powered procurement platform, which is reshaping how airlines and maintenance providers source aircraft parts.
The platform helps airlines and maintenance, repair, and overhaul organisations (MROs) reduce costly aircraft-on-ground delays and excess inventory by using specialised AI to optimise sourcing across global aviation supply chains, reports Tech.eu.
“This new funding positions SkySelect to capture a larger share of the $40 billion aircraft materials market.”
Alexander Chikunov, founding partner at Verb Ventures
“Legacy procurement systems and processes are fundamentally broken,” said Erkki Brakmann, CEO and co-founder of SkySelect. “Airlines invest over $40 billion annually in aircraft parts while simultaneously carrying $50 billion in excess inventory — a massive inefficiency that our AI-driven platform directly addresses. This growth funding validates both our early-mover advantage in applying AI to aviation procurement and the tangible value we’re delivering to customers.”
The investment will be used to enhance SkySelect’s AI sourcing and procurement optimisation tools. The company plans to expand hiring across product development, data science, and customer success at its offices in the United States, India, and Estonia.
SkySelect targets aviation’s $30 billion problem with its technology
The funding comes as airlines face mounting pressure to modernise legacy procurement systems. When aircraft are grounded due to missing components, operators are forced to procure parts through manual, fragmented processes that can take days or weeks to resolve. Aircraft-on-ground (AOG) incidents, where a plane is grounded while awaiting parts, cost airlines around $30 billion annually, with carriers also carrying more than $10 billion in excess inventory.
SkySelect’s platform addresses this through specialised AI that matches aircraft part requests with optimal suppliers across a network of thousands of vendors worldwide, providing real-time market visibility. Unlike generalised large language models, its targeted approach enables just-in-time procurement, building operational resilience while reducing the need for costly safety stock. The company pioneered the application of AI to aviation parts procurement before AI became ubiquitous in marketplace technology.
Advancements in procurement technology are enabling airlines and MROs to reduce the number of shipments by up to 30 per cent while keeping fewer parts in stock — minimising logistics costs and reducing carbon emissions in the process.
One new major airline client a month: SkySelect’s growth is taking off
Since its launch in 2017, the company has processed over $6 billion in transactions, including $1.3 billion in 2025 alone. SkySelect is currently onboarding approximately one new major client per month, with recent additions including JetBlue, Sun Country Airlines, Air Transport Services Group, Widerøe, and Vueling.
“Legacy procurement systems and processes are fundamentally broken. Airlines invest over $40 billion annually in aircraft parts while simultaneously carrying $50 billion in excess inventory — a massive inefficiency that our AI-driven platform directly addresses.”
Erkki Brakmann, CEO and co-founder of SkySelect
The funding round was co-led by Verb Ventures and RockCreek, with participation from SmartCap Green Fund, funded by the European Union’s NextGenerationEU programme, alongside existing investors Bain Capital Ventures and Lux Capital.
Alexander Chikunov, founding partner at Verb Ventures, described SkySelect as the kind of B2B platform the firm targets. “This new funding positions SkySelect to capture a larger share of the $40 billion aircraft materials market,” he said.
Anahita Smeets, Managing Director at RockCreek, said the platform addresses a critical bottleneck in aviation. “With airlines facing billions in losses from aircraft-on-ground delays and excess inventory, we believe SkySelect’s platform offers a compelling solution at scale.”
Are you interested in trading with Estonia? Enterprise Estonia provides sourcing services for foreign enterprises. Contact Estonian export advisors or use our free e-consulting service to start trade with Estonia.
