Beyond Aero raises additional $20 million in Series A funding round
October 29, 2024
Hydrogen-electric pioneer Beyond Aero has completed a successful Series A funding round, securing an additional $20 million and bringing its total capital raised to $44 million.
Co-led by Giant Ventures and the French Sovereign fund Bpifrance (via its Deeptech 2030 fund), the funding round also included investment from Initialized Capital, forming what Beyond Aero co-founder and CEO Eloa Guillotin described as “a powerful alliance of investors”.
“The US Giant Ventures offers invaluable guidance, a client network, and a global perspective,” she continued; adding that Initialized Capital – who has supported the company since the seed round – “brings founder experience in scaling industry leaders”.
The company’s clean-sheet, hydrogen-electric ‘One’ business jet concept – designed to carry up to eight passengers with a range of 800 nautical miles – has already secured $914 million in LOIs for 108 aircraft. “Beyond Aero is redesigning the architecture of a CS23 aircraft from the ground up, optimising it for hydrogen-electric propulsion,” explained Beyond Aero.
The initial flight test campaign of Beyond Aero’s prototype hydrogen-electric propulsion system (aboard a Zenair CH750), achieved earlier this year, also represented France’s first crewed fully hydrogen-electric flight. “In the short time since our initial investment, the team has achieved milestones that would take years for anyone building in this space,” ventured managing partner at Initialized Brett Gibson.
Beyond Aero has also “already begun deploying $12 million to build the world’s most powerful integrated hydrogen electric powertrain lab,” a test facility replicating one of the aircraft’s two powerplants and “marking a crucial milestone in advancing system design and safety verification”.
