Aviation climate tech Estuaire raises €2.2M

Paris-based Climate Tech startup Estuaire, which offers a data platform for airlines, airports, and aviation financiers, has closed a Seed round of €2.2M, led by Climate Tech VC firm Satgana. The investor lineup includes Safran Corporate Ventures, XAnge, and AFI Ventures, the early-stage impact arm of Ventech.

Estuaire offers a flight data analytics platform to help airlines and airports to cost-effectively minimize CO2 and non-CO2 emissions including contrails. Contrails are linear clouds formed by airplanes. The platform also allows aviation financiers to assess climate exposure and create sustainable investment policies. Estuaire is a qualified data provider for the Pegasus Guidelines, the main framework for climate-aligned aviation finance.

Estuaire's core innovation, the E-Engine technical stack, uses data fusion and cloud computing to integrate all aviation data streams including radar flight tracks, numerical weather predictions, passenger load factors, and several climate and flight physics models. Estuaire is working with companies like Vueling, SkyAlps, Nordic Aviation Capital, Societe Generale, Daher, Safran, Ascendance Flight Technologies and Hynamics, with a growing pipeline across various verticals.

Estuaire was founded by two brothers, Maxime and Nicolas Meijers, both seasoned pilots.The team is supported by senior advisors from the aviation industry such as Ulrich Schumann, one of the fathers of contrail science, and Alexandre de Juniac, former CEO of Air France-KLM and the International Air Transport Association.

Satgana General Partner Romain Diaz commented: “Ever since we met with Maxime and Nicolas, we were impressed with their depth of knowledge, experience, drive, and sense of mission, making it clear that they are the kind of founders who can truly shake up an industry. It is particularly relevant in the aviation industry, which faces the thorny challenge of being poised to grow steadily in the decades to come while needing to drastically curb its emissions. We are extremely proud to lead Estuaire’s Seed round and look forward to supporting them in tackling the climate impact of the sector.”

Abdelheq Bouchekioua, Investment Director of Safran Corporate Ventures, commented: “Understanding and quantifying the impact of the aviation sector on the environment is a priority for Safran. The Estuaire software solution enables a thorough assessment of the impact of an aircraft fleet over its entire life cycle and has already demonstrated its relevance to numerous players in the industry. The investment in Estuaire will complement Safran Corporate Ventures’ portfolio of startups dedicated to the decarbonization of the aviation sector.”

Maxime Meijers, co-founder and CEO of Estuaire, commented: "Estuaire carries the belief in a more responsible way of flying. We aim to monitor emissions across the entire aviation value chain and develop solutions to reduce those emissions. With the right data, proper incentives, and regulatory mechanisms, we can foster a unified effort to achieve the sector's climate goals.”