Ampaire Raises $19 Million to Advance Hybrid-Electric Aircraft Commercialization

Ampaire has closed a $19 mil­lion Series B financ­ing round as the hybrid-elec­tric avi­a­tion devel­op­er moves to expand flight oper­a­tions, man­u­fac­tur­ing and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion work. The round was led by Dia­mond­Stream Part­ners, with strate­gic par­tic­i­pa­tion from Alas­ka Star Ven­tures and IAGi Ven­tures, the cor­po­rate ven­ture arms of Alas­ka Air Group and Inter­na­tion­al Air­lines Group.

The financ­ing brings Ampaire’s total fund­ing to $68 mil­lion, includ­ing about $25 mil­lion in non-dilu­tive grants and con­tracts. The com­pa­ny said the new cap­i­tal will sup­port its tran­si­tion from flight test­ing toward com­mer­cial deploy­ment and larg­er-scale oper­a­tions.

“Hybrid-elec­tric propul­sion has the poten­tial to improve the eco­nom­ics and envi­ron­men­tal
per­for­mance of region­al avi­a­tion while pre­serv­ing the range and flex­i­bil­i­ty oper­a­tors need. We
appre­ci­ate Ampaire’s dili­gent and prag­mat­ic approach to advanc­ing tech­nolo­gies that don’t
require new air­frames or sig­nif­i­cant charg­ing infra­struc­ture. We are pleased to sup­port Ampaire
as it advances this tech­nol­o­gy toward com­mer­cial use and look for­ward to explor­ing its
appli­ca­tion to short-haul fly­ing in the com­mu­ni­ties we serve.” – Diana Bir­kett Rakow, CEO of
Hawai­ian Air­lines and exec­u­tive vice pres­i­dent at Alas­ka Air­lines

Ampaire plans to use the funds to expand its engi­neer­ing and oper­a­tional teams, increase sup­pli­er readi­ness and man­u­fac­tur­ing capa­bil­i­ties, and pre­pare after­mar­ket sup­port. It will also expand com­mer­cial route flights through the FAA’s Elec­tric Pow­er­train Inte­gra­tion for eVTOL and oth­er advanced air­craft-relat­ed pro­grams, while pro­duc­ing addi­tion­al Eco Car­a­van air­craft.

“Since Ampaire joined our inno­va­tion pro­gramme last year, we have been impressed by both the
scale of its oper­a­tions and the poten­tial of its tech­nol­o­gy. What excites us most is its prac­ti­cal
approach to reduc­ing avi­a­tion emis­sions by apply­ing hybrid-elec­tric tech­nol­o­gy to air­craft
already in ser­vice today. The team has made impres­sive progress, and we look for­ward to
explor­ing how hybrid-elec­tric APU solu­tions could reduce air­craft fuel con­sump­tion on the
ground.” – Raza Ali, Man­ag­ing Part­ner, IAGi Ven­tures

Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion is anoth­er focus. Ampaire is advanc­ing Part 33 cer­ti­fi­ca­tion for its AMP-H570 hybrid-elec­tric pow­er sys­tem and a Part 23 Sup­ple­men­tal Type Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­gram for the Eco Car­a­van, a hybrid-elec­tric con­ver­sion of the Cess­na Grand Car­a­van.

The com­pa­ny says its air­craft have accu­mu­lat­ed more than 38,000 hybrid-elec­tric test miles, giv­ing it one of the larg­er flight-test­ed hybrid-elec­tric air­craft fleets cur­rent­ly oper­at­ing. Its Eco Car­a­van has demon­strat­ed approx­i­mate­ly 54% to 57% low­er total fuel con­sump­tion than the con­ven­tion­al tur­bo­prop con­fig­u­ra­tion in flight test­ing, accord­ing to Ampaire.

The company’s approach cen­ters on inte­grat­ing hybrid-elec­tric propul­sion into exist­ing air­craft rather than devel­op­ing entire­ly new air­frames. This could allow oper­a­tors to retain exist­ing air­port infra­struc­ture and avoid the charg­ing require­ments asso­ci­at­ed with ful­ly elec­tric air­craft.

“Ampaire has built a dif­fer­en­ti­at­ed posi­tion by pair­ing ambi­tious elec­tri­fi­ca­tion goals with a
prac­ti­cal prod­uct and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion strat­e­gy. The company’s flight expe­ri­ence, cus­tomer
engage­ment and dis­ci­plined path to mar­ket give us con­fi­dence that Ampaire can lead the
com­mer­cial adop­tion of hybrid-elec­tric propul­sion.” – Dean Dono­van, Gen­er­al Part­ner,
Dia­mond­Stream Part­ners

Thomas Sleightholm

Thomas is a con­tent writer for eVTOL Insights, cov­er­ing all aspects of the glob­al Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty ecosys­tem. Got a sto­ry for him? Please send an email to editorial@evtolinsights.com

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