French designer and manufacturer of wingsail solution AYRO has secured a € 19.2 million ($21 million) Series B round financing for its OceanWings.
The funding is led by Blue Ocean, managed by SWEN Capital Partners, which brings the total funding for the leader in Wind Powered Decarbonation solutions for the maritime sector to over 30 million €.
Existing investors Ocean Zero and Bpifrance, through its Ecotechnology 2 fund, as part of France 2030 initiatives, participated in the round, alongside new investors AmInvest, Colam Impact, Normandie Participations, Normandie Littoral and FCPI Capital Innovant n°2.
“Every year, some 90,000 ships transport nine billion tons of goods globally, accounting for almost 90% of all logistics flows. Reducing the emissions of these ships is an urgent priority,” said Emmanuel Schalit , AYRO’s new CEO.
“The good news is that wind is free, available on every ocean, and the technology to harness it is now mature and available.”
“Wind propulsion is critical for decarbonization of shipping in the context of what is now being called ‘global boiling,’ and ambitious targets set by the International Maritime Organization and carbon reduction regulations coming into effect across the globe. The transformation of the maritime industry has begun, and we are excited about the major contribution that AYRO will make,” Christian Lim , managing director of SWEN Capital Partners. said.
In July, AYRO installed four OceanWings wingsails on Canopée, a vessel dedicated to transporting Ariane 6 space launch system components from Europe to French Guiana, which is expected to enable a 30% reduction in fuel consumption and CO 2 emissions over its regular route.
The new generation of OceanWings powering Canopée represents a major step-up in scale (40 meters high / 363 square meters), ease of use (OceanWings are fully automated) and maturity of the solution.
“For centuries sails were used in maritime trade. When coal started being used in the 19th century, transport vessels continued to need sails because they could not transport enough coal to cross oceans,” said Marc Van Peteghem , Founder of AYRO.
“Now that we need to abandon oil with its high energy density as the single source of power for ships, wind will be an essential component, alongside other technologies, to create hybrid zero-emission ships in the coming years.”