Skift Take
There's a lot of money pouring into next-generation flight technology with promises of huge revenues in the future.
Travel Startup Funding This Week
Each week we round up travel startups that have recently received or announced funding. Please email Travel Tech Reporter Justin Dawes at [email protected] if you have funding news.
There’s a lot of money pouring into next-generation flight technology. This week, there was an investment into renewable jet fuel and a propulsion system for flying taxis.
Four travel tech startups have announced fundraises of over $68 million over the past week.
LanzaJet: $30 millionLanzaJet, a renewable jet fuel company, has raised $30 million from Southwest Airlines.
Illinois-based LanzaJet says its technology can convert low-carbon ethanol to jet fuel. The company in January opened a small-scale plant in Georgia that it says can produce 10 million gallons of fuel per year from sources including feedstock waste.
Southwest used 2.1 billion gallons of fuel in 2023, according to a year-end earnings report. That's an example of the need for big increases in renewable jet fuel production for the aviation industry to meet net-zero emissions goals by 2050.
As part of the funding agreement, LanzaJet p