UK Infrastructure Bank greenlights $40m for hydrogen-electric aircraft developer
The UK Infrastructure Bank said this morning it plans to allocate $40 million to ZeroAvia, a British/American hydrogen-electric aircraft developer.
The Bank confirmed to Net Zero Investor that it has joined ZeroAvia’s Series C funding round as a cornerstone-level investor with a £32 million, or $40 million, equity investment.
In total, ZeroAvia completed its funding round at a total of $116m, as it also received capital commitments from Airbus, Barclays Sustainable Impact Capital and NEOM Investment Fund (NIF).
The company disclosed that Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Horizons Ventures, Alaska Airlines, Ecosystem Integrity Fund, Summa Equity, AP Ventures and Amazon Climate Pledge Fund also took part in the funding round.
ZeroAvia was founded in 2017 by Valery Miftakhov, who currently serves as the company CEO.
"The Series C round is set to accelerate the company’s journey to certification of its first engines and advance R&D that will scale the clean propulsion technology for larger aircraft," according to Ian Brown, head of banking & investments at the UK Infrastructure Bank.
"This funding raise will help support the Government’s target to decarbonise aviation by 2050 by developing new clean propulsion technologies that can be flying between UK airports this decade," he explained.
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Brown called the allocation "a great example" of his 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."
Aviation sector
Aviation is one of the fastest growing sectors, and generally considered to one of the most challenging to decarbonise, contributing the equivalent of more than 38 million tonnes of CO2 from international and domestic journeys starting and ending in the UK.
Around a quarter of UK carbon emissions are predicted to come from aviation in 2050.
“Aviation and hydrogen are sectors that need significant private investment to get to net zero," Brown continued.
"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," he concluded.
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