French electric aircraft developer Aura Aero is raising funds for its 19 seater aircraft on the CrowdCube crowdfunding site.

Aura Aero is looking for €500,000, or 0.2% of its €266m valuation, from crowdfunding to boost the detailed design phase of its 19 seater commercial electric regional aircraft (ERA), which will cost $800m. The company has already secured pre-orders for 472 ERA aircraft worth over $7bn.

The company has already developed a 2-seater electric aircraft called INTEGRAL which is providing useful feedback for the ERA development.

The company has already raised €460,000 from 44 investors in the first three days on CrowdCube, and is also backed by the Occitanie Region, the BPI (French Public Investment Bank) and venture capital firm Innovacom.

CrowdCube has previously been used by QPT for its GaN motor drive control technology and Nanusens for its MEMS sensor technology.

www.crowdcube.com/companies/aura-aero/pitches/ZpMQ6b

LILIUM LAUNCHES PUBLIC OFFERING TO BRIDGE LIQUIDITY GAP
NEWS BY YVES LE MARQUAND
Lilium has announced plans to raise capital through a public offering of its Class A shares and warrants, alongside a private placement.

“We currently intend to use the net proceeds we receive from this offering to continue to fund the development and operations of the company and for general corporate purposes, which may include payments to the company’s suppliers, and working capital uses,” said the company in the offering prospectus.

The public offering will be led by B. Riley Securities and will include warrants to purchase additional shares.

Concurrent with the public offering, Lilium secured private investments from firms like BIT Capital, Earlybird Venture Capital, and an affiliate of Tencent. These investors agreed to purchase shares at $1.05 each, with warrants exercisable for $1.50 per share.

The funds raised from both offerings, along with a prepayment from Tencent affiliate Aceville, will be used to support Lilium’s ongoing development efforts and general operations.

German air electric takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft developer Lilium has taken another step toward securing funding it needs to push its battery-fueled jet toward commercialization, with the announcement that German officials have resumed work toward freeing up €100 million ($108 million) in loans to the company.

Lilium said Wednesday that Germany’s federal government and that of Bavaria had commissioned state development bank KfW to conduct due diligence on the company – a requisite for loan clearance. The news effectively jump-started efforts that had appeared to stall in late April. At that time, the eVTOL startup reacted negatively to the unexpected setback with veiled threats it would look for financing elsewhere.

Shanghai-based eVTOL aircraft developer Volant has secured almost 100 million yuan ($14.1 million) in a Series A+ funding round, less than two months after closing its Series A round.

Volant raised the Series A+ round to fund the trial flights of its pipeline products and the development of new models, with a focus on commercial passenger eVTOL aircraft that can accommodate up to five people, including the pilot.

Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) technology and production company LanzaJet today announced an investment from Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund. According to the company, the new investment would enable LanzaJet to continue building its capability and capacity to deploy its sustainable fuels process technology globally. Launched in 2020 by carbon recycling technology company LanzaTech, Illinois-based LanzaJet has developed “Alcohol-to-Jet” technology enabling the creation of SAF and renewable diesel from waste-based and sustainable ethanol sources including feedstocks such as low-carbon sugarcane, energy crops, forest residuals, agricultural wastes, and organic waste.

Jimmy Samartzis, Chief Executive Officer of LanzaJet said:

“Through its support of LanzaJet’s first-of-a-kind ethanol to SAF biorefinery, LanzaJet Freedom Pines Fuels, Microsoft has played a significant role in making SAF production a reality in the United States, and this investment reemphasizes its urgent commitment to decarbonization of hard-to-abate sectors.”

According to the companies, the new investment will also enable Microsoft to gain access to sustainable fuels – SAF and Renewable Diesel – as well as SAF Certificates (SAFc) from future LanzaJet projects which will help Microsoft on the path to becoming carbon negative by 2030. In 2022, Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund invested $50 million to support the construction of LanzaJet Freedom Pines Fuels in Soperton, Georgia, which opened in January 2024. That plant will begin annual production of 10 million gallons of SAF and renewable diesel in the second quarter of 2024.

LanzaJet and Microsoft also intend to explore how Microsoft can supply its data and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to improve LanzaJet’s corporate functions and ethanol to Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) process technology.

JP Morgan Chase, Meta and Deloitte among 20 major companies financing the biggest ever set of deals to buy 50 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel.

The drive to decarbonise flights has accelerated, with the Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance (SABA) announcing the largest ever collection of deals to purchase high-integrity SAF certificates (SAFc).

Twenty major organisations have committed to buy SAF certificates for nearly 50 million gallons of high-integrity SAF, channelling close to $200 million of investment into the SAF market.

Over the next five years, companies including AstraZeneca, Autodesk, Bain & Company, BCG, Deloitte, JPMorgan Chase, Live Nation, McKinsey & Company, Meta, Morgan Stanley, Netflix, Novo Nordisk, Samsung Biologics, Watershed and Workday, alongside SABA founding organisation RMI, have committed to channel close to $200 million into purchasing SAFc.

Now in its seventh year in existence, Revolution.Aero will bring together over 250 senior attendees who are leading – funding and supporting – the future of flight. If you want to find out how aviation is changing – and meet the people shaping the future of aviation – you need to be at Revolution.Aero London 2024.

… Revolution.Aero London 2024 has a strong focus on finance. A large portion of our audience is VCs/Investors, aircraft lessors, investment banks, and customers – making this conference an incredibly effective business opportunity. Attendees have secured investments (eg Elroy Air), signed LOIs (eg ELECTRON and MintAir), signed mandates and formed companies as a direct result of Revolution.Aero events.

Reta Jo Lewis, president of the Export-Import Bank of the United States, visited Beta’s airplane plant to see how a $169 million loan was put to use.

The president of the Export-Import Bank of the United States was in Vermont Tuesday to tour the Beta Technologies electric aircraft manufacturing facility at Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport off Williston Road that it helped build with a $169 million loan.

Reta Jo Lewis, who is also chair of the board of directors of the bank, wanted to see firsthand how the loan the bank provided to Beta in November was being put to use, creating jobs and producing products for export, the mission of the bank. The bank serves as the official export credit agency of the United States.

Beta has already signed a deal to provide electric aircraft to Air New Zealand and …

Numerous research teams across universities throughout the country are delving into diverse aviation environmental issues such as sustainable aviation fuels, aircraft emissions, and noise impacts. This research is being facilitated through grants provided by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The FAA has allocated $27.2 million to 11 universities in the United States under its Aviation Sustainability Center (ASCENT) program. These grants will be supplemented equally by contributions from the Center’s partners, as part of the program’s cost-sharing agreement.

“The work of these teams is a cornerstone of the FAA’s sustainability efforts,” said FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker. “The entire aviation industry can leverage this research to reduce noise and enable safe and efficient operations while working toward net-zero emissions by 2050.”

Chinese eVTOL aircraft developer TCab Tech has closed a Series A funding round with a $20 million contribution from an investor in the Middle East.

Chinese eVTOL developer TCab Tech reported this week that it has closed a Series A funding round with a $20 million contribution from an investor in the Middle East. According to TCab, the unnamed strategic investment fund intends to introduce electric air taxis in the region, and the fresh funding should accelerate the development and certification of its E20 eVTOL aircraft.

The Shanghai-based company aims to certify the piloted, four-passenger E20 with the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) in 2025, and it claims the E20 will be China’s first domestically produced tiltrotor eVTOL aircraft…