Sustainable fuels startup Aether Fuels secures $34 million in Series A funding from global investors

Sustainable fuels for the aviation and ocean shipping industries startup Aether Fuels has secured $34 million in Series A financing from a syndicate of global investors. VP Ventures led the round, which also includes Chevron Technology Ventures, CDP Venture Capital and Zeon Ventures. Series Seed lead investor Xora Innovation and other existing investors TechnEnergy Ventures, Doral Energy-Tech Ventures, Foothill Ventures and JetBlue Ventures also participated. ""Aether stands out with an elegant and innovative technology approach that delivers superior economics,"" said AP Ventures' Kevin Eggers. ""Aether has assembled an exceptional team of energy experts, business leaders, and serial entrepreneurs."" The proceeds of the funding will be used to accelerate the company's proprietary technology, Aether Aurora, to create sustainable fuels for both aviation and ocean shipping industries. The product leverages technology licensed from Aether's strategic partner GTI Energy to deliver economically sound process by lowering plant investment and operating costs, while simultaneously driving up yield. Eggers added: ""[Aether Fuels'] differentiated go-to-market strategy and disciplined execution are informed by a collective record of building energy and fuel projects worth tens of billions of dollars. Aether is advancing at pace, and we are excited to support their growth."" Aether CEO Conor Madigan commented: ""This is a group of financial and strategic leaders that see clearly the need to expand the supply of sustainable fuels. However, without dramatically scaling the capacity to produce the fuels, supply will remain seriously constrained, and the transition will be slow, if not impossible. ""This is precisely the problem we address with a disruptive scalable solution that encompasses novel chemistry, equipment, and process flows to simplify the conversion process, while enabling maximum carbon flexibility. The result: more product at vastly lower CapEx costs than existing approaches."" The company said Aether Aurora is highly flexible and enables the conversion of a wide range of abundant waste carbon feedstocks into jet fuel and other liquid hydrocarbons. This, it claims, allows the product to overcome supply constraints faced by other sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production processes. Aether will use the new capital to further expand its research and development infrastructure, scale up its technologies, and expand and accelerate the construction of its test production plant. In addition, the company will begin developing a pipeline of commercial-scale SAF and other sustainable liquid fuel production facilities in both the US and southeast Asia.