On September 12, 2024, hydrogen aviation startup ZeroAvia announced that it has extended its Series C funding round with an additional £20m (approximately US$26.2 million) from the Scottish National Investment Bank.
This amount adds to the current Series C round, which was announced in November 2023. However, the original US$116 million raised during this round has since kept growing.
In July 2024 American Airlines, International Airlines Group (IAG) and ITOCHU Corporation announced additional investment in ZeroAvia, which together with the Scottish investment takes the total to the US$150 million mark.
The round is co-led by Airbus, Barclays Sustainable Impact Capital and NEOM Investment Fund (NIF), from Saudi Arabia. It is also backed by the UK Infrastructure Bank and previous investors such as Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Horizons Ventures, Ecosystem Integrity Fund, Summa Equity, Alaska Airlines, Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund and AP Ventures.
The funds raised this way will help ZeroAvia to move forward along the certification path for its hydrogen powertrain. The startup recently announced that it had initiated ground tests of the new ZA2000 powertrain, its largest to date, designed to power aircraft for up to 80 passengers.
Interestingly, this is the second major announcement in the field of aviation sustainability involving Scottish companies within a matter of days. On September 4, 2024, Scottish airline Loganair announced a partnership with Swedish hybrid-electric aircraft developer Heart Aerospace to promote electric and hybrid-electric aviation in Scotland and the UK.
Scotland is playing a rather prominent role in the development of the emerging hydrogen aviation industry in the UK, with the Orkney Islands being a test ground and potential future launch pad for this technology.
