Bill Gates-Backed Hybrid-Plane Startup Raises $107 million

Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures believes electric aircraft are key to cutting aviation emissions.

Heart Aerospace, a Swedish hybrid-airplane manufacturer backed by Bill Gates, just raised $107 million. The company plans to use the funds to propel its ES-30 hybrid-electric airplane toward commercial viability.

“The [aviation] industry has committed to net zero emissions by 2050. The only way forward is to decouple the tremendous growth in aviation from its emissions, and we believe ES-30 is the first stepping stone,” Heart Aerospace CEO and co-founder Anders Forslund said in a statement.

Danish Sagitta Ventures is among the new investors in the Series B round that brings Gothenberg, Sweden,-based Heart Aerospace’s total funding raised to $145 million. Previous investors include Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures, OQT Ventures, Air Canada, United Airlines, and Y Combinator.

“We believe electric aircraft can be transformational in reducing the emissions of the industry, and enable low cost, quiet, and clean regional travel on a broad scale,” BEV investment committee co-leader Carmichael Roberts said following Heart Aerospace’s Series A in 2021.

Alongside the deal, Heart Aerospace announced that EQT Ventures partner Ted Persson will join the company’s board.

“We believe that sustainable industrial and electrification solutions are not just the future; they are the present, and our investment strategy reflects our unwavering commitment to driving positive change in these critical sectors,” Persson said in a statement.

Heart Aerospace’s ES-30 is a regional aircraft, designed for reduced emissions, less noise pollution, and lower operating costs during its flights. It can accommodate 30 passengers. The ES-30 has an active type certification application with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, and the company said it plans to focus in the coming year on developing the aircraft’s power train, which provides the power needed to turn the airplane’s propellers, according to NASA.

In 2022, aviation generated an estimated 2 percent of energy sector-related carbon dioxide emissions, which was only 80 percent of the pre-pandemic total, according to the International Energy Agency. However, the sector has outpaced emissions growth for rail, road or shipping in the past few decades. In spite of ambitious net zero commitments from the industry, the IEA warns it is not on track to meet these goals. With no action whatsoever, the United Nations predicts emissions from the transportation sector as a whole could grow by as much as 65 percent by 2050. Strategies for reducing greenhouse gases, which could include technologies such as electric vehicles and hybrid-electric aircraft, could contribute to as much as a 68 percent reduction in the transportation sector’s emissions if successful.