Earlier this summer Ishka SAVi on behalf of Impact mediated a Q&A with two leading voices on sustainable aviation investment:
- Lukas Kaestner, co-founder and CCO of the Sustainable Aero Lab, the world’s largest programme dedicated to accelerating startups in sustainable aviation.
- Niklas Lund, CEO of Rockton, an aircraft asset manager that has pivoted its operation to support the sustainable transformation of the aviation industry.
The result was a fascinating conversation between Kaestner and Lund, available in full on pages 30 to 36 of the Impact Insights 2024 mid-year publication. This brief report summarises some of the main takeaways from that conversation.
Perspectives by Lukas Kaestner:
- Creating appealing storylines for investors, the public, and policymakers is a major challenge for sustainability technologies. E-VTOLs, a segment that has received a considerable amount of investment in the past few years, has been more successful at telling a compelling story than perhaps other sustainability-focused start-ups in aviation. At the same time, the e-VTOL market may, after a process of consolidation, leave a bad ‘hangover feeling’ with investors that the remaining sustainable aviation start-ups will need to address.
- New aircraft design and certification are expensive and risky, benefitting large players unless new entrants secure support from established players or policy measures.
Sustainable aviation needs to become more appealing to the public, who may accept higher costs for a compelling product. The current sustainability aspects in airline offerings – unlike its well-differentiated travel class products – are minimal and not well understood by the public.
Perspectives by Niklas Lund:
- Better communication is needed to convey that a transformation in aviation’s energy sources is happening and should be embraced, including politically. A better understanding of this transformation may broaden the investment appeal.
- Investments in fixed-wing electric or hybrid-electric aircraft face high development costs and long timelines, posing challenges for venture capital.
- New propulsion technologies must offer both sustainability and cost reduction to become attractive, similar to solar, wind, and battery developments. Direct investments in firms behind these early technologies carry risks, but their potential success could offer significant trade-sale opportunities.
- SAF investments are promising due to strong demand and policy support, but technology and market maturity need improvement. Traditional infrastructure investors are engaging slowly.
Read the full Q&A for more perspectives.
Ishka is a founding member of Impact on Sustainable Aviation. For more information on Impact (Initiative to Measure and Promote Aviation’s Carbon-free Transition e. V.), please visit: impact-on-sustainable-aviation.org
