How capzlog.aero built a regulatory moat into a CHF 13.9M global opportunity

When an industry sits on outdated infrastructure, the first mover to modernize it defines the standard. capzlog.aero, a digital logbook platform for pilots, recognized this opportunity within aviation's data silos and moved decisively to capture it. By combining regulatory expertise, deep aviation knowledge, and clean SaaS unit economics across three reinforcing revenue streams, the company has already captured 20% of Switzerland's pilot market and secured CHF 600k from five business angels. Philippe Müller, CEO and co-founder, walks through how a pilot-CTO and ETH computer science lecturer closed the execution gaps that typically derail aviation software—and why the timing to scale internationally is now.

OOMNIUM: The aviation industry faces a 700,000-pilot shortage by 2040, yet data lives in silos. From a market timing perspective, why is now the critical inflection point for this solution?

Philippe Müller: The Global South and Asia-Pacific are scaling commercial aviation faster than Europe ever did, and the industry is growing strongly worldwide. Precisely because safety is the top priority in aviation, regulations adapt only slowly to new technological developments. The consequence: most pilots still record their flight experience in traditional paper logbooks today.

Whoever builds this data foundation first defines the standard, and that is exactly what we are doing.

But right now, the balance is shifting. The industry is coming under increasing cost pressure, looking for efficiency gains, and thereby also raising the pressure on regulatory authorities. Current oil prices amplify this and show how thin margins are. We are ideally positioned to capitalize on this inflection point: we have multiple years of market experience, a legally solid and field-proven platform, and we produce structured, high-quality data that simply does not exist in the industry today.

And this data becomes more valuable year by year. It forms the foundation for processes for which the data basis is missing today: pilot-operator matching, flight and duty time reporting, insurance and experience records. Whoever builds this data foundation first defines the standard, and that is exactly what we are doing.

OOMNIUM: Your founding team brings a unique blend: a pilot-CTO with fintech experience and an ETH computer science lecturer. From an investor's perspective, how does this team composition de-risk execution, and what have you demonstrated so far as proof of concept?

P.M.: Aviation software typically fails for one of two reasons: either the founders understand the aviation industry but cannot build anything usable, or they build excellent software but do not understand the industry. We have closed both gaps.

My co-founder Vladimir studied computer science and came to aviation relatively late: first as a private pilot, then as a commercial pilot, and today as an airline pilot at Helvetic Airways. He has experienced the problem we are solving first-hand, and that is the ideal foundation for a product that genuinely supports pilots in their daily work.

I myself bring a technical background from ETH, combined with a strong interest in people. It is precisely at the intersection of technical feasibility and human requirements that many products fail, especially when external pressure mounts. That is exactly where my strength lies: connecting both worlds and keeping the team on course.

With our lead investor Christian Novosel, who will also become a future board member, we additionally have a senior airline executive on board who opens doors to the big customers. The fact that we have invested early in professional structures, with clean corporate governance, a strong board, and experienced advisors, will prove decisive in the coming growth phase.

OOMNIUM: You're targeting three distinct revenue streams—B2C subscriptions, B2B operator partnerships, and a recruiting platform. What are the unit economics for each tier, and which revenue stream represents the highest margin opportunity for investor returns?

P.M.: B2C: The digital logbook. The logbook forms the foundation of our business model and will carry us into profitability. As a SaaS platform, it can be operated at low cost with high gross margins. Affordable entry-level subscriptions, cross-subsidized by advertising, lead to an average ARPA of CHF 150.

B2B: Automation for operators and airlines. The high-quality data from the logbook forms the basis for automating and streamlining business processes at airlines. Since everyone from the small operator to the large airline faces the same challenges, we can address the entire customer spectrum. With a major airline, an annual contract of CHF 150,000 is entirely realistic; the average ARPA of CHF 14,000 also reflects the large number of smaller operators.

Job Matching: our strongest revenue driver. The real elegance lies in the data foundation. Our paying B2C users keep the dataset up to date themselves and can leverage their own data to their benefit. In the future, a pilot will be able to indicate, for example, that he would like to be informed about job offers that perfectly match his profile, either anonymously or openly.

While existing job platforms only know those pilots who are actively searching, we draw on a continuously updated, high-quality pool of verified profiles. Taking data protection and individual preferences into account, we can deliver a matching quality that does not yet exist in the market.

We position our offering for operators at CHF 9,000 per placement, with excellent SaaS margins. At 500 placements per year by 2030, this equates to CHF 4.5M ARR, flowing almost entirely into EBITDA.

The key point: Job Matching only works because B2C and B2B feed it together. The three revenue streams reinforce each other.

OOMNIUM: With CHF 600k already secured from five business angels and CHF 400k still to raise, how will you deploy this CHF 1M capital? And what are your key performance metrics for this round?

P.M.: The majority flows into product and engineering for Phase 1: scaling the logbook platform with "capzlog.aero 2.0", including professional UI/UX, initial pilot-to-operator recruiting features such as CV exports, expanded flight data visualizations, the flight school program, and a recommendation engine that unlocks exponential growth. A meaningful share goes into sales and partnership development, to convert existing relationships with Swiss operators into signed B2B contracts and to launch European expansion. The remainder secures the runway to reach the Phase 2 milestones: simplifying complex processes at flight schools and operators so that they find their way into our B2B platform.

OOMNIUM: Today you have 2,000+ paying users and 20% market share in Switzerland. Walk us through your path to profitability and TAM expansion—what is your realistic revenue projection by 2030, and how does this compare to your CHF 1.083B TAM estimate?

P.M.: Our base case for 2030 stands at CHF 5.3M ARR. It results from 20,000 B2C pilots at CHF 150, 100 B2B operators at CHF 14,000, and 100 placements at CHF 9,000 each. We reach breakeven in 2029 and a net profit of over CHF 2.5M in 2030. The upside scenario, should individual external factors develop more rapidly, stands at CHF 13.9M ARR, driven by 40,000 B2C users, 250 operators, and 500 placements.

On the TAM: the CHF 1.083B designates the total addressable market, not what we will capture. Even our upside scenario at CHF 13.9M corresponds to only about 1.3% of the TAM. That is deliberately conservative: we generate substantial revenues even under restrained assumptions.

The path is clearly mapped out: Switzerland served as a proof point with 20% market share, Phase 1 and 2 deepen this base and launch the European expansion, Phase 3 brings B2B recruiting live in 2028, and Phase 4 scales globally from 2029 to 2030. Each phase adds an additional revenue stream on top of the existing base and causes the curve to steepen rather than flatten.

OOMNIUM: You've secured EASA FCL.050 certification—the world's toughest standard for pilot records. How did you navigate the regulatory pathway, and what does this certification mean as a competitive moat and barrier to entry for investors evaluating capzlog.aero?

P.M.: FCL.050 is the European regulation that defines how pilots must document their flight time. It is the world's strictest standard for pilot records. We are the first and only digital logbook that has been officially audited and certified against this standard by the aviation authority of an EASA member state.

Compliance is not bolted on afterwards with us, but integrated into the heart of the software: at every level of the data records and at every point in time, the legal requirements are fulfilled. This architecture and the industry's best data model form the basis for genuine digitization, rather than merely mapping existing paper forms as web forms.

We are the pacemaker in the field of regulation for personal logbooks.

We are the pacemaker in the field of regulation for personal logbooks. We push the boundaries and work actively with aviation authorities and pilot organizations to develop requirements for pilots, operators, and authorities in a meaningful way and align them for digital workflows.

For investors this means above all: we are a decisive step ahead of all competitors. Pilot expertise, brand trust, and regulatory lead protect us from copycats. From the gold standard, we can moreover step down into less stringent regulatory frameworks far more easily than our global competitors could ever do the reverse.

OOMNIUM: What specific investor returns can you project? How does capzlog.aero's revenue trajectory translate into shareholder value, and what milestones will unlock the most significant value creation for your current and future investors?

P.M.: I am not a financial advisor, but the pre-money valuation stands at CHF 3.9M. Our base case for 2030 projects CHF 5.3M ARR, with a net profit of over CHF 2.5M from 2030 onwards. Regulated vertical SaaS with a defensible moat and profitable growth typically trades at 6 to 12 times ARR, and strategic buyers often pay more.

Three milestones drive value: first, the go-live of B2B recruiting in 2028, which shifts the revenue mix from linear SaaS to a marketplace model and thereby unlocks fundamentally different multiples. Second, breakeven in 2029, which is precisely the profile for which strategic buyers pay premiums. Third, the first international market entry, which proves the global viability of our approach.

We are building capzlog.aero into the standard infrastructure for pilot records. Whether this ends in an acquisition, a growth round, or continued independent operation will be decided by the market. What I commit to: every milestone until 2030 is designed to expand our options, not to restrict them.