ZeroAvia secures additional funding to accelerate its hydrogen-electric powertrain solutions for zeroemission airplanes

ZeroAvia’s mission to transition the world to zero-emission, hydrogen-fueled flight picked up a significant tailwind today as the startup announced $21.4 million in new funding in a Series A round. Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Ecosystem Integrity Fund led the raise, with follow-on investors Amazon Climate Pledge Fund, Horizons Ventures, Shell Ventures, and Summa Equity. In addition, the company established a partnership with British Airways and received approval for new UK government funding through the ATI Programme to deliver an additional $16.3 million of non-dilutive funding breakthrough 19-seat hydrogen-electric powered aircraft that is market-ready by 2023. Today’s announcement brings the total new funding to $37.7 million and the total funding since inception to $49.7 million.

Kara Hurst, VP Worldwide Sustainability, Amazon, said:

​”Amazon created The Climate Pledge Fund to support the development of technologies and services that will enable Amazon and other companies to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement ten years early—achieving net zero carbon by 2040. ZeroAvia’s zero-emission aviation powertrain has real potential to help decarbonize the aviation sector, and we hope this investment will further accelerate the pace of innovation to enable zero-emission air transport at scale.”

The fundraise allows ZeroAvia to accelerate the development of its hydrogen-electric powertrain further. The Series A funds the next phase of the company’s R&D program, which focuses on developing and testing the certification-ready ZA-600 powertrain capable of flying 10-20 seat aircraft up to 500 miles. The investment comes on the heels of the company completing the UK’s first-ever commercial-scale battery-electric flight in June 2020 and the first flight of the largest hydrogen fuel cell aircraft in September 2020 as part of the innovative HyFlyer I project. ZeroAvia expects a  long-distance flight of 250 miles in the next three months.

ZeroAvia offers the first practical hydrogen-fueled powertrain technology to replace conventional engines in propeller aircraft resulting in zero-emission and lower noise and dramatically lower fuel and maintenance costs and significant total trip cost reduction. Focused on hydrogen aviation solutions that address various markets, ZeroAvia expects to achieve commercialization as early as 2023 and demonstrate flights up to 500 miles in aircraft up to 20 seats. By 2026, ZeroAvia intends to realize flights over 500 miles range in aircraft with up to 80 seats, and by 2030 over 1,000-mile flights in aircraft with over 100 seats.

Devin Whatley, managing partner at Ecosystem Integrity Fund, said:​

“We see tremendous potential for hydrogen to decarbonize transportation, a core focus of our investment strategy. With aviation being such a significant contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions, and also one of the trickiest areas to decarbonize, we believe ZeroAvia offers the only near-term solution to sustainable aviation and has already made significant progress toward achieving this goal. We are excited to see how they continue to grow and develop with our support.”