Neela Biotech raises £2.1M to turn waste into aviation fuel
What's the deal? Cambridge-based Neela BiotechDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has raised £2.1 million in pre-seed funding to move its waste-to-fuel technology from the lab to a pilot-scale trial at a biogas plant. The company uses an AI-guided microbial process to convert food, farm, and forestry waste into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
Who's backing it? Elbow BeachDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, which the company describes as "one of the UK's most active specialist climate investors," led the round with £1.5 million. AscensionDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Cambridge EnterpriseDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Ventures TogetherDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and strategic angel investors joined.
What's the endgame? Neela converts waste into fatty acids, a precursor for HEFA-based SAF, replacing scarce waste cooking oils. By building on anaerobic digestion already running in European biogas plants, it aims to cut the capital cost of producing SAF at scale.
Why now? Around 95% of SAF today is made via HEFA, which costs about 1.5 times more than standard jet fuel and depends on limited feedstocks. Newer methods such as e-SAF can cost up to 10 times more.
What's the pressure? The UK imports more than half its jet fuel from the Middle East, leaving airlines exposed to volatile prices. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has disrupted roughly a fifth of the world's oil supply, and the global airline industry's fuel bill is set to rise by $98 billion this year.
The signal: At £2.1 million, this is a modest pre-seed, but it lands as aviation hunts for SAF feedstocks beyond today's thin supply. Neela's bet — retrofitting existing infrastructure rather than building new plants — is a pitch for both cost parity and a fresh revenue line for biogas operators facing the end of government subsidies.
Read more: uktechnews.info
Image credit: Neela Biotech
