Flying high: how the stock of Danish start-up is soaring

Airhelp named among 25 hot New York start-ups

Jan 12, 2015

Named as one of Business Insider's 25 hot New York start-ups to watch, and placed at number 81 by the British business site on its 2014 Silicon Alley list, the stock of Danish company AirHelp is currently soaring.

Its app, which aids passengers to claim compensation for delayed or cancelled flights in Europe or overbooked flights in the US, has received tens of millions of kroner in investment from private investors and an American venture capital fund.

Last year the company moved its headquarters from San Francisco to New York, which is the right place to be according to its founder and chief marketing officer, Nicolas Michaelsen.

"When you get invited to a dinner with Bill Gates, there's a good chance that the person you sit next to will turn out to be an interesting one," he told MX.dk.

Easier compensation
The company has automated the claims procedure to make the compensation process easier to navigate. Since launching in 2012, it has helped 45,000 passengers claim money they may not have realised they were entitled to.

Airhelp claims 26 million passengers are eligible for compensation every year, but only 0.06 percent succeed in obtaining it.

The amount of compensation a passenger could be entitled to can be as high as 5,000 kroner for flights within Europe and 8,200 kroner for domestic flights in the US. The average payout is 4,000 kroner per passenger.

AirHelp operates on a 'no win, no fee' basis, only charging if there is something to claim. They take a 25 percent cut of the payout, including VAT.

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