Airbus, Barclays Sustainable Impact Capital and NEOM have co-led ZeroAvia’s latest financing round.
The investment will help ZeroAvia deliver its mission of a hydrogen-electric engine in every aircraft.
Founder and CEO Val Miftakhov said the investment is a “positive step” in the development of hydrogen aviation and its “potential to transform the industry.”
“For ZeroAvia to now have investors such as Airbus coming on board is the strongest possible validation of the prospects for hydrogen-electric propulsion technology,” he added.
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The company is pursuing hydrogen-electric propulsion systems as the most environmentally friendly and economically attractive solution to aviation’s growing climate change impact.
The company’s hydrogen-electric engines use hydrogen in fuel cells to generate electricity, which is then used to power electric motors to turn the aircraft’s propellers, with the only by product during flight being water.
Airbus and ZeroAvia will also on certification approaches for hydrogen power systems. The companies also intend to work together on a number of technical areas, including liquid hydrogen fuel storage, flight and ground testing of fuel cell propulsion systems, and development of hydrogen refuelling infrastructure and operations.
Airbus vice president ZEROe Aircraft Glen Llewllyn said: “ZeroAvia is supporting the development of a wider hydrogen ecosystem for aviation – technologies, decarbonised hydrogen supply and certification of hydrogen propulsion systems – which all complement well with our own ambition to bring a ZEROe hydrogen powered aircraft to service by 2035.”
Barclays co-head of principle investments Andy Challis added: “ZeroAvia has shown that with ambition, technological innovation and the right support from both the public and private sector, it is possible to scale and implement such hydrogen technologies at pace, as evidenced by the ZA600 moving ever closer to commercial flight.”
