United have announced the new members of The United Airlines Ventures Sustainable Flight FundSM. Aircastle (a Marubeni & Mizuho Leasing Company), Air New Zealand, Embraer, Google, HIS, Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking, Safran Corporate Ventures, and Technip Energies are now among the 22 corporate partners that make up the airline’s first-of-its-kind initiative to decrease emissions and promote the manufacture of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) by investing in start-ups.
With a combined commitment of more than $200 million, the 22 corporate partners represent every segment of the aviation supply chain, including airlines, manufacturers of engines and aircraft, fuel producers, engineers and technology specialists, financiers, travel agencies, and more. Together, they offer strategic expertise that will enable the Fund’s portfolio companies to achieve commercialization.
The fund has remained the first and only venture fund backed by a broad limited partner base and was created to identify and support start-ups advancing feedstock and technology development focused on increasing the supply of SAF, from its beginning in February 2023.
The airline have also provided an opportunity for everyday customers to engage in the scheme. Before checking out, anyone using United.com or the United app has the option to make a donation to support United’s investment in the UAV Sustainable Flight FundSM. Customers can choose to donate $1, $3.50, or $7.00. Continuing in the effort toward climate transparency for its consumers, United also now shows an estimate of the carbon emissions for their booked flights through United.com or the United app. In less than 12 months, more than 115,000 people have contributed approximately $500,000 since February 2023.
When compared to using only conventional jet fuel, SAF lowers the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions linked to air travel over the course of its lifecycle. The largest amount of any airline in the world, over five billion gallons of SAF have been invested in by United to date for future production.
“SAF is the best tool we have to decarbonize airplanes, but we don’t have enough of it. To create the fuel supply we need for our fleet, United recognized that we would have to help build a brand-new industry from scratch – like wind and solar in previous decades. As part of our effort to build a new sustainable aviation ecosystem, we recruited a group of partners with the industry expertise to support our start-ups with both financial and strategic capital, to help them navigate the entire process from conception to commercialization.
Andrew Chang, Managing Director of United Airlines Ventures.
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