Natilus raises $28 Million for its Blended-Wing Aircraft

The financing was led by Draper Associates and includes strategic investors with focuses on aerospace, defence, and global freight logistics

Natilus, one of the specialists in blended-wing-body aircraft, has announced the close of a $28 million Series A financing round (around €23.5 million). The financing was led by Draper Associates and includes strategic investors with focuses on aerospace, defence, and global freight logistics including: Type One Ventures, The Veterans Fund, and Flexport. Also participating are new investors New Vista Capital, Soma Capital, Liquid 2 VC, VU Venture Partners, and Wave FX.

This funding is intended to help Natilus accelerate the development and commercialisation of its family of blended-wing cargo aircraft, an aerodynamic configuration that is attracting growing interest across the aerospace industry. Unlike conventional aircraft, which feature a cylindrical fuselage separate from the wings, the blended-wing-body (BWB) architecture integrates the wings and fuselage into a single structure. The design reduces drag and increases lift; leveraging improved aerodynamics, capacity and efficiency, Natilus says its blended-wing aircraft can cut fuel usage by 30% and carbon emissions and operational costs by 50% compared with today's cargo aircraft.

Air cargo is a strategic segment of the aviation industry, now facing increasingly pressing decarbonisation requirements. With regulatory pressure and carriers' climate commitments intensifying, technologies capable of significantly reducing aviation's footprint are drawing growing interest. Long studied by major manufacturers without reaching broad commercial deployment, the blended-wing-body architecture is seeing renewed momentum driven by start-ups such as Natilus and JetZero.

"The aviation market is ripe for a new aircraft manufacturing entrant," said Tim Draper, Founding Partner of Draper Associates. "Natilus's innovative and technology-driven approach to developing blended wing aircraft has opened the doors for air freight and passenger airlines alike to embrace these new planes."

"We're not just building aircraft. We're reshaping the future of aviation beyond the limitations of the tube-and-wing airframe to fundamentally transform how we transport goods and people," said Aleksey Matyushev, Co-Founder and CEO of Natilus. "With this latest funding and newest personnel additions, we are strongly positioned to bring our family of blended-wing aircraft to market, disrupting the Boeing-Airbus duopoly and bringing much-needed innovation to the aviation industry."

The company is also counting on this funding to continue its flight-test efforts and to secure the certifications required by the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration).