Viridos, an algal biofuel company, announced that it had raised $25 million in funding to finance R&D for developing and commercialising sustainable, low-carbon, algae-based jet and diesel fuel.
The Series A funding was led by Bill Gates-founded Breakthrough Energy Ventures, with participation from Chevron and United Airlines Ventures. It comes on the heels of media reports last month that long-time Viridos partner ExxonMobil had discontinued its collaboration with the organisation. In 2010, Viridos and Exxon created a research and development agreement to work on creating next-generation biofuels from algae.
The financing included a $5 million investment from United Airlines Ventures Sustainable Flight Fund, the fund’s inaugural investment. The fund, launched last month with over $100 million in investments from United and partners such as Air Canada, Boeing, GE Aerospace, JPMorgan Chase, and Honeywell, is geared at investing in and supporting entrepreneurs focused on SAF research, technology, and production.
“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.”
“Decarbonising 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 United Airlines Ventures President Mike Leskinen. “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.”