ESTUAIRE RAISES €2.2M IN SEED ROUND TO REDUCE THE CLIMATE IMPACT OF AVIATION
- The company leverages flight trajectories, weather, and passenger data to build an exhaustive platform tracking aviation and its climate impact;
- The funding round, led by Climate Tech VC Satgana, will support the growing team of Estuaire to further develop the platform and boost sales;
- The team has top-tier advisors, including an award-winning aviation scientist and a former airline executive;
- The company’s customers include Vueling, Daher, and Nordic Aviation Capital
Paris, France – June 25, 2024 – Paris-based Climate Tech startup Estuaire, which offers a comprehensive data platform for airlines, airports, and aviation financiers, has closed a Seed round of 2.2 million euros, led by Climate Tech VC firm Satgana. The investor lineup includes Safran Corporate Ventures, XAnge, and AFI Ventures, the early-stage impact arm of Ventech.
The aviation industry is responsible for more than 2% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In 2050, this number is expected to substantially increase if no action is taken to increase fleet efficiency and massively develop low-carbon fuels following the expected increase in demand for flights and the rapid relative improvement of land-based emission sources. Decarbonizing aviation is challenging due to the complexity of emissions, which consist of CO2 and non-CO2 emissions. All mitigation levers (technology, operations, low carbon fuels) will have to be activated.
Estuaire offers a flight data analytics platform to help airlines and airports to cost-effectively minimize CO2 and non-CO2 emissions including contrails. Contrails are linear clouds formed by airplanes. They increase surface temperatures mostly at night by blocking outgoing Earth radiations. Their contribution to the climate impact of aviation depends on numerous parameters and is complex to model. Estuaire has developed deep expertise to support its partners and customers in improving their understanding of the non-CO2 effects of aviation and associated models. The platform also allows aviation financiers to assess climate exposure and create sustainable investment policies. Estuaire is a qualified data provider for the Pegasus Guidelines, the main framework for climate-aligned aviation finance.
Estuaire's core innovation, the E-Engine technical stack, stands out by using data fusion and cloud computing to integrate all aviation data streams, including radar flight tracks, numerical weather predictions, passenger load factors, and several climate and flight physics models. Estuaire is working with companies like Vueling, SkyAlps, Nordic Aviation Capital, Societe Generale, Daher, Safran, Ascendance Flight Technologies and Hynamics, with a growing pipeline across various verticals.
Estuaire was founded by two brothers, Maxime and Nicolas Meijers, both seasoned pilots. The Estuaire team has world-class expertise from highly relevant professional backgrounds at Airbus, MIT, Caltech, Aéroport de Paris, and various AI engineering roles.
The team is supported by senior advisors from the aviation industry such as Ulrich Schumann, one of the fathers of contrail science, and Alexandre de Juniac, former CEO of Air France-KLM and the International Air Transport Association.
Satgana General Partner Romain Diaz commented: “Ever since we met with Maxime and Nicolas, we were impressed with their depth of knowledge, experience, drive, and sense of mission, making it clear that they are the kind of founders who can truly shake up an industry. It is particularly relevant in the aviation industry, which faces the thorny challenge of being poised to grow steadily in the decades to come while needing to drastically curb its emissions. We are extremely proud to lead Estuaire’s Seed round and look forward to supporting them in tackling the climate impact of the sector.”
Abdelheq Bouchekioua, Investment Director of Safran Corporate Ventures, commented: “Understanding and quantifying the impact of the aviation sector on the environment is a priority for Safran. The Estuaire software solution enables a thorough assessment of the impact of an aircraft fleet over its entire life cycle and has already demonstrated its relevance to numerous players in the industry. The investment in Estuaire will complement Safran Corporate Ventures’ portfolio of startups dedicated to the decarbonization of the aviation sector.”
Maxime Meijers, co-founder and CEO of Estuaire, commented: "Estuaire carries the belief in a more responsible way of flying. We aim to monitor emissions across the entire aviation value chain and develop solutions to reduce those emissions. With the right data, proper incentives, and regulatory mechanisms, we can foster a unified effort to achieve the sector's climate goals.”
