Airbus Ventures Invests in Swiss Cleantech Startup Bcomp

Bcomp joins the Airbus Ventures portfolio, signifying the firm’s expanding commitment to sustainable, low-carbon technologies.

MENLO PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Airbus Ventures announces its investment in Bcomp’s oversubscribed Series B financing of CHF 32.4 million alongside a group of mobility, financial, and impact investors led by BMW i Ventures. An advanced provider of eco-efficient Natural Fibre Composites (NFCs) for performance and weight reducing applications, Bcomp will use this new funding to scale its workforce, increase its domestic and global production capacity, and strengthen its commercial footprint.

Traditional materials such as carbon fibres, glass fibres and plastics are energy intensive to produce and often hard to separate and recycle. In response to these environmental challenges, Bcomp’s natural fibre-based solutions enable weight reduction, dematerialisation, use of renewable raw materials, and viable end-of-life options.

“The success of this investment round is a testament to the many years of hard work from the entire team,” remarks Bcomp Founder and CEO Christian Fischer. “We are pleased to welcome Airbus Ventures into our group of investors, dedicated to supporting Bcomp’s ambitious global strategy and advancing our collective contribution to the circular economy.”

Bcomp’s proprietary NFCs stemmed from a garage project in 2011 with a mission to create lightweight, high-performance skis. A decade later, the company now powers a wide array of advanced applications across automotive, aerospace, mobility, maritime, and athletics. Their customer portfolio includes collaborations with BMW, Volvo Cars, and Porsche AG.

“Driven by a remarkable team, Bcomp’s new class of low-carbon materials has new and exciting potential to energise aerospace and adjacent industries,” explains Airbus Ventures’ Financial Officer, Claas Kohl. “We at Airbus Ventures are eager to advance technologies committed to addressing our planet’s greatest challenges, and we are honoured to help fuel Bcomp’s next growth phase on their important journey to generating long-term, measurable impact.”

Harnessing the properties of natural fibres, Bcomp’s ampliTex™ and powerRibs™ technologies can be used to produce composites that are light and stiff, while reducing cradle-to-gate emissions. Used in several high-profile applications, they offer significantly better vibration damping than other commonly used composites.

“As a firm, we’re consciously focused on investing in companies, like Bcomp, devoted to sustainably benefiting and protecting planet Earth, in-line with the fund’s maturing ESG objectives,” notes Airbus Ventures Managing Partner Thomas d’Halluin. “Together with our entrepreneurs we aim to leverage our shared international platform to help amplify critical capabilities for collaboration, tackle immediate planetary system needs, and help establish more equitable and sustainable system futures.”

Learn more about Airbus Ventures’ platform and vision here.

About Bcomp
Bcomp™ is a Swiss cleantech company and ESG-enabler that develops and sells sustainable lightweighting solutions. Its proprietary natural fibre-based reinforcement technologies ampliTex™ and powerRibs™ reduce environmental impact in a wide range of high-performance sectors, including automotive, infrastructure, aerospace, and athletics. The Bcomp team offers its customers cutting-edge engineering support from idea to final part, out of its Fribourg headquarters. More information: www.bcomp.ch/

About Airbus Ventures
Headquartered in Silicon Valley, with offices in Toulouse and Tokyo, Airbus Ventures is a fast-moving, early-stage venture capital company that independently funds and supports startups set to shift both the aerospace industry and our planetary system to a sustainable future. Airbus Ventures has helped aspiring innovators reach new dimensions of achievement since 2015.