Climate tech startup Sora Fuel announced that it has raised $14.6 million in a new investment round aimed at accelerating the development of its technology to produce sustainable aviation fuel with water, air, and renewable energy as the only inputs.

Founded in 2024, Boston-based Sora relies solely on water, air, and renewable energy to produce jet fuel that is carbon-negative and price-competitive with fossil fuel. The company has developed technology that captures CO₂ directly from ambient air and converts it into syngas in a single integrated step, co-producing hydrogen while bypassing the energy-intensive sorbent regeneration that accounts for over 90% of the cost and capital in conventional direct air capture (DAC).

Aviation accounts for roughly three percent of global carbon emissions, and demand for air travel continues to grow. SAF is widely seen as the most viable decarbonization pathway for the sector, yet existing methods for producing it remain too expensive for widespread adoption. The primary bottleneck includes carbon feedstocks, green hydrogen, and clean power, which have kept e-fuels such as SAF at a steep premium to conventional jet fuel.

Sora said that its platform is capable of capturing carbon at a cost of less than $50 per ton—roughly one-tenth that of traditional DAC approaches—and could enable SAF production at costs below $5 per gallon.

Gareth Ross, CEO and co-founder of Sora Fuel said:

“We’ve gone further, faster, and with less capital than anyone in the e-fuels space. With this funding, we accelerate our path to production-scale manufacturing of our fuel, bringing the aviation industry one enormous step closer to truly affordable, carbon-negative fuel.”

The new capital will fund the construction and operation of its pilot production facility, designed to scale daily unit production of drop-in sustainable SAF from gallons to barrels. The demonstration milestone expected to be achieved within 18 to 24 months, according to the company.

The new funding round was co-led by Spero Ventures and Inspired Capital, alongside super pro-rata investments from Engine Ventures and Wireframe Ventures.

Marc Tarpenning, Venture Partner at Spero Ventures, Sora Fuel board member, and co-founder of Tesla said:

“Sora Fuel has built something the clean fuels industry has been searching for: a technology that can actually reach unsubsidized cost parity with fossil fuels. The team has demonstrated exceptional scientific rigor and engineering execution. Their approach to direct air capture and fuel synthesis is, to our knowledge, the first that makes an economically viable air-to-fuels pathway genuinely credible.”