FLYING WHALES grabs €122 million to create low-carbon cargo transport solution

France-based company designing a new industrial low-carbon cargo transport, FLYING WHALES has raised €122 million in funding. The extra cash will enable the company to finalise its aeronautics programme.

The round was backed by the French government via French Tech Souverainete, which is part of the France 2030 programme led by the General Secretariat for Investment (attached to the PM’s Office) and operated by Bpifrance, and the Principauté de Monaco via the Societe Nationale de Financement. FLYING WHALES’ current strategic shareholders ALIAD (Air Liquide’s venture capital fund) and ADP Group also participated in this round. Societe Generale Assurances and new private investors also participated.

Founded in 2012 by Sebastien Bougon, FLYING WHALES is developing a programme, LCA60T, a rigid airship for heavy load transport with a carrying capacity of 60 tons. The company is also creating FLYING WHALES SERVICES, the business that will run the LCA60T.

So, what’s next on the horizon for the platform? FLYING WHALES and its industrial coalition will speed up the work required to launch FLYING WHALES SERVICES and complete the development of the LCA60T aeronautical programme in France and Quebec, Canada.

Sebastien Bougon, chairman and CEO of FLYING WHALES said: “The aeronautical programme and its industrial implementation are well underway, and the development activities for the future airline and airport company, FLYING WHALES SERVICES, will be mature enough in 2023 to be spun off into a subsidiary, and thus accelerate both our already promising commercial activities and the implementation of the resources necessary for future LCA60T operations.”

Emmanuel Audouard, director of Bpifrance’s cross-functional VC investment division, said: “FLYING WHALES is one of the major bold industrial projects that have the ambition to profoundly revolutionise transportation as we know it – while contributing to its decarbonisation. Bpifrance is delighted to support the FLYING WHALES teams in this new phase of its development, towards the marketing of the LCA60T.”