ZeroAvia announces successful $116m fundraising round

Green aviation pioneer ZeroAvia has today announced the successful completion of a $116m Series C funding round backed by the UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB), Airbus, Barclays Sustainable Impact Capital, and NEOM Investment Fund.

The latest funding injection will be used to accelerate the certification of ZeroAvia’s hydrogen-powered engines and advanced R&D efforts, which aim to deliver commercial zero emission aircraft in the coming years.  

ZeroAvia has completed a series of successful test flights using its zero emission technology and aims to develop engines to support a 300-mile range for nine to 19 seat aircraft by the end of 2025, before then delivering larger systems capable of a 700-mile range for 40 to 80 seat aircraft by 2027.

The company is said to have nearly 2,000 pre-orders for its engines from a number of major global airlines, most recently announcing a deal to supply hydrogen-electric engines to a newly-launched airline in the Canary Islands in August.

The company has attracted a host of high profile investors with Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Horizons Ventures, Alaska Airlines, Ecosystem Integrity Fund, Summa Equity, AP Ventures, and Amazon Climate Pledge Fund also participating in the latest funding round. 

According to today’s announcement, international and domestic flights starting and ending in the UK currently contribute the equivalent of more than 38m tonnes of CO2, and are slated to account for around a quarter of UK’s carbon emissions in 2050. As such, ZeroAvia said its latest plans will help support the government’s target to decarbonise aviation by 2050 by developing new clean propulsion technologies that can enable zero emission commercial flights between UK airports this decade.  

Val Miftakhov, founder and CEO, ZeroAvia said the latest backing from UKIB and others will help the firm deliver its first commercial zero-emission flights and alllow the UK to realise substantial export potential.

“We are looking forward to working with over the next few years,” he said. “ZeroAvia has grown rapidly in the UK as we have worked to deliver two major historic milestones in aerospace engineering as we look to preserve the benefits of flight through clean propulsion.”

Ian Brown, head of banking and investments at UKIB, added: “This is a great example of the Bank supporting a first of a kind technology that has real potential to have a telling impact on carbon emissions and help position the UK at the forefront of a developing green hydrogen ecosystem.  

“Aviation and hydrogen are sectors that need significant private investment to get to net zero. By providing confidence to investors, our equity has helped to crowd in the private investment needed for the continued development of this cutting-edge technology and should help stimulate the development and deployment of hydrogen technology across other hard to decarbonise sectors.” 

The news comes on the eve of Virgin Atlantic’s first transatlantic passenger flight powered by 100 per cent Sustainable Aviation Fuel.

Transport Secretary Mark Harper is set to be among the passengers on board Boeing 787 Dreamliner Flight 100 from London’s Heathrow airport to New York’s JFK.

According to an update from July, Air bp and Virent are to supply 60 tonnes of SAF to be used on the world first flight.

The Virgin Atlantic led effort has been joint funded by the Department for Transport and a consortium including Rolls Royce, Boeing, University of Sheffield, Imperial College London and Rocky Mountain Institute.

The announcement comes as SAF testing efforts continue to accelerate, with Gulfstream Aerospace flying a Gulfstream business jet from Georgia in the United States to Farnborough and Emirates using a 100 per cent variant on an A380 superjumbo this month.

According to the initial announcement, the use of 100 per cent SAF on Virgin’s flight, combined with carbon removal through biochar credits will ensure the flight results in net zero emissions.

Shai Weiss, CEO at Virgin Atlantic, said in July that the flight will be a “historic moment” in aviation’s roadmap to decarbonisation.

“Alongside fleet transformation, SAF is the most readily available way for our industry to decarbonise, but currently there’s not enough supply and without it and the radical collaboration required to produce it, we can’t meet our 2030 targets,” he said. “We need UK government support to create a UK SAF industry to allow for every single flight out of the UK to operate with 100 per cent SAF – if we make it, we can fly it.”

Jason Gaell, executive vice president of global SMEs at American Express GBT – who is ste to be on board tomorrow’s flight – hailed the operating of a 100 per cent SAF flight on one of the world’s most popular business travel routes will help spur demand for SAFs and allow more companies to participate in low emission flights.

“Corporate investment in business travel is helping kick start the emerging SAF market as companies strive to hit their carbon reduction goals,” he said. “As part of our program, airlines and corporate customers have helped inject over 3.4 million gallons of SAF into the existing fuel network, abating over 30,000 tCO2e, the equivalent of around 50,000 flights from London to New York.”

However, Aviation Environment Federation policy director Cait Hewitt questioned the focus on SAFs as a means of curbing emissions in the near term, arguing that until better technological solutions are available at scale, the only way to cut CO2 from aviation is to fly less. “SAFs represent around 0.1 per cent of aviation fuel globally and will be very hard to scale up sustainably,” she said.