With sustainable travel as a pillar of JetBlue Ventures’ investment focus, we’re well aware that aviation is facing an emissions crisis, and airlines lack options to reduce their carbon footprint. The industry emits more than 900 million tons of CO2 per year, which accounts for 2.5% of the world’s emissions. That number is likely to double by 2050 if nothing substantive changes.
To support JetBlue and the industry’s sustainability goals, we’re forging partnerships to work toward sustainable fuel and investing in decarbonizing aviation. As such, we are proud to announce our investment rationale for the $30M series A round of New York City-based tech startup AIR COMPANY to support the scale up of its carbon conversion technology and expansion into the aerospace market, including with our parent company JetBlue Airways.
Have you met AIR COMPANY?
Best known for creating the world’s first alcoholic beverage made directly from carbon dioxide, AIR COMPANY uses air, water, and electricity to produce carbon-negative alcohols and fuels from CO2. The company is becoming a leader in CO2 utilization as it works to slow the momentum of climate change and help commercial aviation and other industries become more sustainable through their AIRMADE™ sustainable aviation fuel (SAF.)
In addition to the impact on climate change, producing low-cost synthetic fuels that can sell at price parity with fossil fuel would address several multi-billion-dollar markets. The global renewable energy market is expected to reach $2.9T by 2027, and AIR COMPANY intends to sell offtake agreements to customers across the jet fuel ($172B), ethanol ($92B), and methanol ($33B) markets.
What makes them special
Deep expertise
Aviation is a highly regulated industry, with strict technical requirements for the introduction of new products or processes. So the fact that AIR COMPANY’s co-founders have proven track records and immense knowledge of the technology and the business goes a long way.
Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Dr. Stafford Sheehan is a leading scientist with 10 published patents in chemistry and physics, more than 38 academic publications, and several technical awards. Dr. Sheehan earned his bachelors of science degree in chemistry from Boston College and a PhD in physical chemistry from Yale University. He developed catalyst materials for fuel cells and electrolyzers for H2 production as well as AIR COMPANY’s carbon utilization technology.
Co-founder and CEO Gregory Constantine led AIR COMPANY from an early-stage startup into one of the world’s most innovative companies, developing profitable applications of AIR COMPANY’s technology across fragrances, spirits, fuels, and more. In 2017, Forbes named Constantine to its 30 Under 30 list, and he previously led strategy and partnerships at one of the largest spirits makers in the world, Diageo.
Unique technology
Dr. Sheehan and Constantine founded AIR COMPANY in 2017 and the company has already demonstrated its tech over more than 8,500 operational hours. AIR COMPANY’s integrated system for AIRMADE SAF production uses proven technology to convert CO2 into aviation fuel with renewable alcohols as a key intermediate.
Unlike other synthetic jet fuels made using bio-derived methods or the Fischer-Tropsch process (more on those here), AIR COMPANY’s synthetic process yields aromatic compounds. Achieving a concentration of aromatics to meet SAF specifications is critical toward increasing the blending ratio of SAF with conventional jet fuel.
Vetting and awards
In addition to AIR COMPANY’s three patents, its method of converting CO2 into sugar was a winner of NASA’s CO2 Conversion Challenge. Also for its technology that converts CO2 into usable products, the company was a finalist in the $20M NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE. It was also a winner of Fast Company’s 2021 World Changing Ideas Awards and was one of Time’s 100 Best Inventions of 2020.
Another source of credibility for AIR COMPANY is lead investor Carbon Direct, a New York-based consulting and investment firm composed of some of the world’s leading carbon removal and utilization scientists (20+ PhDs) that advises carbon neutral strategies for companies including Microsoft and Spotify. This fundraising round has been a great opportunity to partner with Carbon Direct’s deeply technical team and to learn more about the space and validity of AIR COMPANY’s approach.
Up next
AIR COMPANY will use the Series A funding to ramp up its CO2-derived alcohols and fuels R&D and production. Because the proprietary technology can scale across many verticals, the company addresses global mitigation potential of 10.8% of global carbon dioxide emissions, which is over 4.6 billion tons of CO2 annually.
We couldn’t be more excited about AIR COMPANY’s team, technology, and mission to help aviation curb emissions and combat climate change, and we’re looking forward to the day when you can fly on carbon-neutral AIRMADE SAF with the option for carbon-negative Air Vodka martinis, or Airtinis as they’re called. Cheers.
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