Nexus Lab

About Nexus Lab

Nexus Lab, established in 2022, is a U.S.-based software company focused on mitigating aviation's climate impact by reducing contrail formation. The company was co-founded by CEO Omar Nuruzade, who has a background in engineering and environmental science, and Gular Ismayilova. Their mission is driven by the significant warming effect of contrails, which are estimated to be five times more effective at trapping heat than CO2 and account for 35% of aviation's direct impact on global warming.

The company targets commercial airlines, providing a B2B software solution to help them navigate evolving environmental regulations, such as new EU rules starting in January 2025 that mandate the monitoring and reporting of contrail impacts. Nexus Lab operates on a subscription-based revenue model. The core of Nexus Lab's offering is a flight optimization platform that uses machine learning to analyze vast amounts of satellite imagery, flight traffic data, and meteorological parameters. This process predicts where and when contrail formation is likely, allowing airline dispatchers and pilots to make minor adjustments to a flight's altitude or path during pre-flight planning to avoid these zones. The software is designed for easy integration and is currently being used by a European airline via a pilot-facing tablet application.

By integrating AI predictions with physical model simulations like CoCiP and APCEMM, the platform enhances the accuracy of contrail forecasts and reduces false positives. This enables airlines to lower their environmental footprint, with a potential saving of 7 tons of CO2 equivalent per flight, while minimizing operational costs. Since its inception, Nexus Lab has gained recognition by winning the ACT in Space competition in 2022 and the Creative Business Cup in 2023. The company is venture capital-backed, with investors including 500 Global and ClimateLaunchpad, and is actively seeking further funding to scale its operations.