Arcadea Group, a growth-oriented, long-hold investor in vertical SaaS businesses, is hoping to enable a new growth phase for Air Maestro and Spidertracks in the form of a strategic merger.

Air Maestro, a leading Australian SaaS provider of critical safety management systems, flight operations and training solutions, has been supporting aviation operators since 2005. Spidertracks, headquartered in New Zealand, empowers the aviation industry with real-time aircraft management and proactive safety decisions.

This marks a significant milestone in the journey of these two businesses, uniting their already complementary efforts towards a common goal and addressing critical, unserved needs in the global aviation industry. The merger amplifies the strengths of the two businesses, creating a unified front in enhancing safety and operational efficiency in the aviation industry. The merged businesses will deliver a unified software platform that leverages the strengths of each company's offerings and expands the suite of services available to customers, while allowing for a rapidly accelerated, shared product roadmap that will deliver unparalleled value to the market.

As part of the merger, Air Maestro CEO Aleks Banas will take over the CEO role of the combined business, with Spidertracks CPO and COO Steve Whitaker transitioning to COO.

Banas says: “The aviation industry is poorly served by a fragmented collection of sub-scale, legacy businesses. Most at some degree of scale are owned by short term-oriented, financially focused private equity or venture capital firms that have no long term vision for or staying power in this market. By combining Air Maestro and Spidertracks, we will immediately be one of the largest global players in the space, offering the most comprehensive and capable suite of solutions to the commercial aviation market.”

Arcadea Group co-founder and managing director Paul Yancich goes on to say: “Air Maestro and Spidertracks have long been solving different elements of the same fundamental challenge within aviation: how to operate a profitable, successful flight organisation without ever sacrificing quality, safety or efficiency. This is a monumental challenge and, until this merger, no single business could come close to serving customers' entire needs.”

Whitaker adds: “We've heard clearly from the market that they want fewer vendors with expanded capabilities and more modern technology. Our newly formed business will be the only vendor in the world that can truly provide an end-to-end safety, operations, tracking, FDM, FOQA and fleet management solution. And while we're thrilled at our current combined capabilities, we will be investing materially to bring far more functionality to market in the near-term.”

Arcadea Group is confident that the resulting synergies will lead to improved products and services for customers, a safer and more efficient aviation community, and a stronger competitive advantage in the marketplace.