The Age of Zero-Emission Aviation Startups

1. With climate change progressing, the measures that are currently planned by the aviation industry will be not enough. A new study maps 40 promising startups in the new field of sustainable aviation. 
2. The overview by Sustainable Aero Lab maps 40 promising startups, clustering sustainable aviation in four technological fields: Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF), Electric Propulsion, Hydrogen, and the Digital Backbone.
3. It also looks at global venture capital investment into zero-emission tech, a field that has gained significant traction over the last six years, but so far has been shy to connect with the aviation sector, especially when it comes to complex segments such as hydrogen.

 Sustainable Aero Lab is focused on accelerating startups and has been mentoring startups in each segment outlined in this study since its launch in February 2021. Some of the most prominent experts from all segments of aviation have already joined as mentors. 

Stephan Uhrenbacher, founder and CEO of Sustainable Aero Lab: “The startups receiving the most attention in aerospace recently have been doing space travel and urban air taxis. While these products make for exiting flying objects and satisfy human desire, neither air taxis nor putting more people in space address the problem facing commercial aviation: Flying needs to become carbon-free. And this needs to happen much faster than most people in the industry believe. It opens room for startups to provide components for future aircraft or even entire planes, but also new modes of operation.” 

“Aviation is flying directly into a climate crisis. Yet most of the industry is focused on incrementally reducing or offsetting emissions, rather than eliminating them altogether. There is no time left to take this incremental approach; the effects of climate change are increasingly visible and impacting each of our daily lives. We need bold solutions that can deliver emissions-free commercial air travel in the next decade if we have any hope of reaching the goals of the Paris Agreement. The good news is that such solutions exist and represent a huge market opportunity,” says Paul Eremenko, CEO and co-founder of Universal Hydrogen, and mentor in the Sustainable Aero Lab. With his own startup, Universal Hydrogen, the former CTO of Airbus and of United Technologies is playing an active role at the forefront of this activity himself. 

You can find the entire study by Sustainable Aero Lab, including the startup map and analysis of venture capital investments into zero-emission tech, on the Lab’s website www.sustainable.aero.