Swedish aerospace manufacturer Heart Aerospace has announced it will shut down operations in Sweden to fully focus on the US.
Originally a government-sponsored project, Heart Aerospace was founded by CEO Anders Forslund in 2018, and has received investment from Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates, the EIC fund, EQT Ventures and Norrsken VC, among others.
But the company has struggled to crack Europe, resulting in its latest decision to focus on America. “As our customers, partners, and investors are increasingly based in the US, we see greater opportunity in focusing our resources here,” said CEO and cofounder Forslund in a statement.
The move means the 75 employees based in Sweden will either have to find a new employer or apply for less than a dozen specialist roles the company is planning to fill across the pond.
Forslund has already moved to Los Angeles, alongside cofounder and wife Klara Forslund, to oversee the company’s US operations. The company relocated its R&D center and its full-scale aircraft demonstrator to the area last year.
Heart Aerospace has raised another $40m
Following Heart’s $107m Series B in 2024, the hybrid plane startup has also raised another $40m earlier this spring, according to the company statement.
Forslund describes how grateful he is for the team and the support he has received in Sweden, however, by focusing fully on the US, “we can accelerate development, strengthen collaboration, and better position Heart Aerospace for the future,” he said.
Heart’s hybrid 30-seater plane is scheduled to take to the air in 2025.
In the first few years, the company planned to build a 19-seater electric plane, but in 2022, the plan for the smaller plane was scrapped to focus on a 30-seater plane, the ES-30, which will be able to take passengers 200km (from Brussels to Amsterdam, for example) on electric power, and double that distance — Paris to Munich — with hybrid-electric.
Heart Aerospace backed by US Airlines
Whilst Norway aims to operate all short- and medium-haul flights with electric planes by 2040, the rest of Europe hasn’t been as forthcoming about the new technology.
In recent years, discussions at the European Parliament have been focused on increasing the proportion of fuel in planes that comes from biomaterials instead of focus on new technologies, such as electric or hydrogen, according to Simon McNamara, director of government and industry affairs at Heart.
“Within Europe there is a big political focus on SAF (Sustainable Aviation Fuel) as the solution to meeting the sector target of net zero by 2050, but the reality is that SAF will only get us around 70% of the way there under any net zero roadmaps,” McNamara said last year.
Outside of Europe, things have been rosier for Heart. In July 2021, American airlines Mesa and United Airlines invested in Heart and put in an order for 200 planes. A year later, Air Canada put in an order for 30 and Air New Zealand is also working with Heart.
It isn’t clear if Europe’s reduced interest in electric or hydrogen driven planes played a part in Heart’s move to the US. However, as in the case of Heart, most startups pick revenue creation over less soft questions such as Europe as its tech hub.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/heart-aerospace-ditches-europe-to-focus-on-us-operation/
