FLYBMI seats for startups

British / European regional airline flybmi is giving new and emerging UK businesses the chance to win free flights across the network for a year.

Launched in partnership with the Department for International Trade, the Seats for Startups initiative is open to any business that has been trading less than five years and with a turnover of less than £500k per annum.

The winning businesses, which will be selected on a quarterly basis, will receive free flights for up to a year to enable them to support and grow their business. Meanwhile, they will also receive support from a DIT International Trade Adviser. the winning businesses, was online marketplace Paperclip, whose founder Rich Woolley said: “Winning a free flight with flybmi helped us immeasurably; as an early stage startup with limited funds at the time, the flight enabled us to visit our product development team in Brno, Czech Republic.

In 2016, flybmi trialled Seats for Startups in the Bristol region. One of “Working with the development team in person resulted in us catching some product issues before they arose, ultimately resulting in our business going from strength to strength, being nominated for (and winning) some of Wales’ top startup awards and going on to complete a seed raise of nearly £1m.”

This is the first time that the initiative has gone (UK) national. ■