Every passenger jet you have ever flown shares the same basic shape: a tube with wings. It has barely changed in seventy years. We led Natilus's $28 million Series A because Aleksey Matyushev and his team are finally changing it.
A new shape for flight
Natilus builds blended-wing-body aircraft, where the fuselage and wings merge into a single lifting surface. The result is dramatic: up to 30 percent less fuel burned, half the carbon emissions, half the operating cost, and 40 percent more cargo volume than a conventional plane of the same footprint. Its first aircraft, the KONA, is a regional freighter carrying 3.8 tons. A larger passenger model, Horizon, follows.
Why we led the round
Aviation is one of the hardest industries in the world to break into, which is exactly why almost no one tries. Natilus already has an order book of more than 570 aircraft worth roughly $24 billion, from customers including Flexport, SpiceJet, Nolinor Aviation, and Ameriflight. That is real demand pulling a new airframe into existence.
“The aviation market is ripe for a new aircraft manufacturing entrant.”
Tim Draper
The $28 million round, which we led, takes Natilus from design and demand to building airplanes. As founder Aleksey Matyushev puts it, the company is not just building aircraft, it is reshaping how the world moves goods and people. We could not agree more, and we are proud to be the lead investor backing it.
Coverage
Read coverage ↗On this page
Companies in this story
