Insider Brief
- Spark e-Fuels raised €2.3 million in a pre-seed round, backed by Nucleus Capital, Zero Carbon Capital, IBB Ventures, Chemovator, Voyagers.io, and 1.5° Ventures, to fund its first e-fuel pilot plant and expand its team.
- The company’s proprietary e-fuel technology resolves the challenge of intermittent renewable energy supply, enabling cost-efficient and scalable sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production.
- Chemical production is the second-largest industrial source of greenhouse gas emissions after steel.
PRESS RELEASE – Spark e-Fuels is advancing the future of net-zero aviation with its proprietary e-fuel technology that overcomes existing barriers to using cheap renewable energy in production and increases fuel yields. With the aviation industry facing increasing pressure to decarbonize, Spark is addressing one of the sector’s biggest challenges—scaling cost-effective e-fuel production to meet the surging demand for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Now backed by a €2.3 million pre-seed round, Spark is focused on building its first e-fuel pilot plant and expanding its team to accelerate technology development and commercialization.
Renewable energy as a key pathway to producing SAFs and reducing aviation emissions is not a new concept, but attempts to utilize it in the past have struggled. The intermittent availability of wind and solar, which have become the fastest-growing and most cost-effective energy sources, has proven challenging for conventional e-fuel production processes. Spark’s breakthrough technology is overcoming the barrier of intermittent renewable energy with patented production processes that streamline and decouple key production steps, enabling a scalable and cost-efficient SAF solution.
Unlike conventional methods that rely on continuous electricity and hydrogen supplies, Spark’s approach seamlessly accounts for day-to-day intermittent availability as well as any seasonal changes to these inputs, significantly cutting costs while ensuring a high production output. This innovation also reduces the need for expensive hydrogen storage or grid infrastructure, finally making e-fuels a viable alternative to fossil kerosene.
“For sustainable aviation fuel to become the industry standard, production must be both scalable and cost-competitive. Our technology unlocks this potential by integrating renewable energy in a demand-responsive way,” said Mathias Bösl, CEO and Co-Founder of Spark e-Fuels
Beyond aviation, Spark’s technology plays a crucial role in decarbonizing the broader chemical industry. Chemical production is currently the second-largest industrial GHG emitter after steel. As chemical production transitions toward electrification, demand response will be critical to helping the sector meet the ambitious goal of reducing energy-related emissions to zero by 2050.
A $50 billion investment pipeline into SAFs is a powerful indicator of market confidence, underscoring the recognition of SAF as a commercially viable, long-term solution to meeting global emissions targets. Spark’s latest funding comes from a diverse group of investors committed to advancing climate-tech innovation. The round was led by Nucleus Capital and accompanied by Zero Carbon Capital, IBB Ventures, Chemovator, Voyagers.io, and 1.5° Ventures. The round also included participation from business angels with deep industry experience, including former executives from Shell, Lufthansa, BP, Siemens Energy, and McKinsey, who bring invaluable expertise in energy, aviation, and industrial innovation.
“We were drawn to Spark’s ability to integrate renewable energy into chemical production in a demand-responsive way. This approach is not only essential for SAF but has wider applications across the chemical industry, which must decarbonize rapidly,” added Isabella Fandrych, General Partner at Nucleus Capital.
In addition to this funding round, Spark e-Fuels has won grants totaling roughly €300,000. Its transformative approach was recognized further by winning the 2024 UpLink Sustainable Aviation Challenge from the World Economic Forum. This award highlights groundbreaking innovations driving decarbonization in the aviation industry, further cementing Spark’s role as a key player in the future of sustainable air travel.
