Investment: Viridos $25m Series A
Breakthrough Energy Ventures has led a $25m Series A equity investment into Viridos.
United Airlines Ventures – through its new UAV Sustainable Flight Fund – invested $5m with Chevron also joining.
Viridos aims to make Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) from algae. The cash will fund research to increase algae oil productivity.
“By establishing production sites to grow Viridos-engineered microalgae in saltwater, we are creating the foundation for a biofuel future that moves away from fossil fuels without competing for precious resources such as fresh water and arable land. We are excited to have the support from BEV, the leading energy transition venture capital fund, Chevron, and United Airlines. Together we can build the ecosystem needed to bring algae biofuels to the market,” said Oliver Fetzer, Viridos Chief Executive Officer. “We look forward to bringing our oil-producing algae to commercial readiness and then growing them to produce scalable quantities of SAF and RD.”
“Decarbonizing the heavy transportation industry is critical for addressing climate change and therefore a top priority for BEV,” said Carmichael Roberts, Breakthrough Energy Ventures. “Oliver and his team at Viridos have a promising technology for converting algae into sustainable liquid fuels. The science behind their platform positions them to crack the code on the critical barriers to scale, making Viridos an important addition to BEV’s portfolio.”
“SAF is proven, scalable, and the best tool we have to reduce our carbon emissions from flying, but we face a significant shortage of available feedstock,” said Mike Leskinen, president, United Airlines Ventures. “As the global aviation leader in SAF production investment, United remains committed to reaching net zero carbon emissions, without relying on traditional carbon offsets by 2050. Viridos’ algae-based biofuel technology has the potential to help solve our supply problem without the need for farmland or other agricultural resources, and marks our inaugural investment in our new cross-industry Sustainable Flight Fund.”
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Breakthrough Energy also provided a $50m grant to LanzaJet’s Freedom Pines project.
United Airlines Ventures has also invested in: Alder Fuels, Cemvita, Dimensional, Fulcrum and Next Renewable Fuels