United announced that Aircastle, Air New Zealand, Embraer, Google, HIS, Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking, Safran Corporate Ventures, and Technip Energies have  joined the airline’s United Airlines Ventures Sustainable Flight Fund, an effort to reduce emissions and drive production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) through investments in startups. There are now a total of 22 corporate partners.

These corporate partners, according to the announcement, make up all parts of the aviation supply chain — airlines, aircraft and engine manufacturers, fuel producers, engineering and technology experts, financiers, travel management and more — and have now committed more than $200 million while collaborating to provide strategic expertise to help the fund’s portfolio companies reach commercialization.

The airline has included a way for consumers to participate as well. Anyone using United.com or the United app has an option to contribute to supplement United’s investment in the fund before checkout. More than 115,000 people have contributed nearly $500,000 since February 2023, according to the airline.

Andrew Chang, managing director of United Airlines Ventures, said SAF is the best tool available to decarbonize airplanes, but there is not enough of it. To create the fuel supply needed for its fleet, United recognized, he said, “that we would have to help build a brand-new industry from scratch — like wind and solar in previous decades.”
As part of the effort to build a new sustainable aviation ecosystem, said Chang, “we recruited a group of partners with the industry expertise to support our startups with both financial and strategic capital, to help them navigate the entire process from conception to commercialization.”