Climate Tech Fund Statkraft Ventures Invests in Electra

Statkraft Ven­tures, one of the lead­ing VC funds in ener­gy tran­si­tion and cli­mate tech, today announced its invest­ment in Elec­tra to enable it to fur­ther devel­op its hybrid-elec­tric ultra-short take­off and land­ing (eSTOL) air­craft.

Rein­forc­ing Statkraft Ven­tures’ com­mit­ment to advanc­ing sus­tain­able trans­porta­tion and decar­bon­i­sa­tion efforts by invest­ing in emerg­ing tech­nolo­gies that reduce emis­sions, Electra’s eSTOL air­craft is designed for qui­et, effi­cient, and afford­able flight oper­a­tions from run­ways as short as 150 feet.

By offer­ing a viable air trav­el option for short­er region­al routes, the Elec­tra eSTOL air­craft pro­vides an eco-friend­ly alter­na­tive to lengthy road trips in per­son­al cars, cut­ting both trav­el times and emis­sions. Elec­tra recent­ly unveiled the tech­nol­o­gy demon­stra­tor for its eSTOL air­craft and will begin flight test­ing lat­er this sum­mer.

Statkraft Ven­tures man­ag­ing direc­tor Alexan­der Kuep­pers said: “We are excit­ed to part­ner with Elec­tra as it is lead­ing the change towards more sus­tain­able avi­a­tion. Its vision­ary approach and ground­break­ing tech­nol­o­gy to elec­tri­fy air­craft, reduc­ing oper­at­ing costs and emis­sions at the same time, align per­fect­ly with Statkraft Ven­tures’ mis­sion to sup­port inno­v­a­tive star­tups that dri­ve the tran­si­tion to a low-car­bon econ­o­my.”

This invest­ment lever­ages Statkraft Ven­tures’ exper­tise in sus­tain­able ener­gy tran­si­tion to accel­er­ate the devel­op­ment and com­mer­cial­i­sa­tion of Elec­tra’s nine-pas­sen­ger pro­duc­tion eSTOL air­craft. Elec­tra cur­rent­ly holds over 1,200 air­craft pre-orders from more than 30 glob­al cus­tomers, both estab­lished air­craft oper­a­tors as well as new entrants redefin­ing how we trans­port peo­ple and goods.

Elec­tra founder and CEO John Lang­ford added: “Statkraft Ven­tures brings a deep com­mit­ment to sup­port­ing com­pa­nies and tech­nolo­gies that reduce emis­sions and address the threat of cli­mate change. We are hon­ored to have Statkraft Ven­tures on our team and look for­ward to learn­ing from their insight and expe­ri­ence.”

Statkraft Ven­tures part­ners with excep­tion­al founders in ear­ly- and growth-stage star­tups in Europe and North Amer­i­ca with offices in Ger­many and Nor­way and backed by Statkraft, Europe’s largest pro­duc­er of renew­able ener­gy.

Last month, Elec­tra unveiled the test vehi­cle for its eSTOL tech­nol­o­gy demon­stra­tor, the world’s first blown lift air­craft using dis­trib­uted elec­tric propul­sion, which enables the air­plane to take off and land in very short spaces.

Elec­tra Unveils full-scale eSTOL demon­stra­tor for flight test­ing