Airline Group to Invest in $150 Million SAF Fund Managed by Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures

(Kirkland, Washington) oneworld alliance and its member airlines – including Alaska Airlines, American Airlines (NASDAQ: AAL) and Japan Airlines (9201.T), IAG (LON: ICAG) & Cathay Pacific (0293.HK) – and Singapore Airlines (SIA: Singapore) in partnership with Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) announced today the launch of a new $150 million sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) investment fund.

Photo courtesy of Breakthrough Energy Ventures.

The fund, which is led by cornerstone investors Alaska and American Airlines, seeks to accelerate the global development of long-term aviation fuel solutions that are cost-effective, scalable and have lower emissions than conventional fuels, according to today’s press release from oneworld Management Company.

BEV, Breakthrough Energy Venture’s capital fund founded by Bill Gates, will serve as the fund’s investment manager, bringing deep technical expertise, a rigorous diligence model, and extensive experience supporting the growth of early-stage climate technology companies, per today’s press release.

"By investing in the SAF technologies of the future, American and our oneworld partners are making a business decision to accelerate the development of novel technologies with the potential to reach larger scale at lower prices than current technologies can achieve," said Robert Isom, chief executive officer of American Airlines and chairman of oneworld. "We believe reducing the emissions from our operation meets the demands of our customers, will make our business more competitive, and will enable us to continue to deliver the enormous economic benefits of commercial aviation for generations to come."

Eric Toone, chief technology officer at Breakthrough Energy and managing partner at Breakthrough Energy Ventures, said: "Sustainable Aviation Fuel is essential to addressing the sector’s environmental impact and represents a major commercial opportunity. The oneworld BEV Fund is built to identify and scale breakthrough SAF technologies that can deliver real emissions reductions for jet fuel, compete with fossil-based fuels on cost, and integrate seamlessly with today’s aviation infrastructure. These are complex systems-level challenges that will take time to solve, and the fund is built with the long-term vision and staying power to help bring solutions to market."

The global aviation industry, which generates some $4.1 trillion in economic activity and supports 86.5 million jobs, currently accounts for approximately 2-3% of global carbon dioxide emissions, in addition to other environmental impacts, according to oneworld.