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Highlights
Transforming Aviation Through Synthetic Fuel: Metafuels’ Journey from COVID Crisis to Category Creation
When COVID-19 brought the consulting world to a standstill, Saurabh Kapoor and his co-founders saw an opportunity. Their longtime dream of revolutionizing aviation fuel could finally take center stage.
In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Saurabh shared how Metafuels is developing technology to produce synthetic sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) from renewable electricity, CO2, and water – backed by $22 million in funding.
The Birth of a Deep Tech Venture
“When the first COVID lockdowns happened, there was a lot of uncertainty and what we were doing actually overnight dried up,” Saurabh recalls. Rather than wait out the storm, they decided to transform their “evening job, this hobby, this dream” into reality.
The timing proved fortuitous. “If there’s one silver lining around Covid, at least for me and my co-founders, it’s the birth of Metafuels,” says Saurabh.
Rethinking Aviation Fuel Production
Metafuels’ approach is radically different from traditional jet fuel production. Instead of petroleum, they combine renewable electricity with water and CO2 through a catalytic process. The result is synthetic fuel that’s “virtually indistinguishable from jet fuel” but doesn’t add carbon to the atmosphere.
Making an early strategic decision, they chose to avoid competition with food and feed chains – a common criticism of some biofuel approaches. This clear boundary strengthened their market position and narrative.
An Unconventional GTM Strategy
Unlike typical B2B startups focused on quick revenue and traditional marketing, Metafuels is playing a longer game. “We’re not operating in that typical marketing environment,” Saurabh explains. “It’s going to be a B2B transaction where we set up a sizable project and that project’s fuel is going to be used by one, two or multiple airlines.”
Their focus instead is on “building an alliance, an ecosystem within which we can actually work over a couple of years for multiple projects bringing capacity to market.”
This approach recognizes that energy infrastructure requires thinking beyond legacy systems. As Saurabh notes, “Energy systems of today and tomorrow are not going to be similar to energy systems of yesterday… we have to be very efficient, very selective and have scale.”
The Road to Commercialization
Metafuels has mapped out a clear commercialization path:
- Demonstration facility operational in Q2 2025
- First commercial project implementation by mid-2026
- Full-scale fuel production and sales by 2028
Rather than relying on presentations to convince skeptics, they’re letting their technology speak for itself. “I want our first production plans to be running and the roadmap from there to actually large scale production to self-explain our message,” says Saurabh.
Building for Tomorrow’s Aviation
Critics often question whether sustainable aviation fuel can scale effectively. But Metafuels’ approach demonstrates how deep tech founders can successfully tackle complex infrastructure challenges by:
- Using market disruption as an opportunity for innovation
- Making clear strategic choices about market scope
- Building long-term ecosystem partnerships over traditional marketing
- Designing for future systems rather than legacy infrastructure
- Proving technology through demonstration before scaling
As aviation seeks sustainable solutions, Metafuels’ journey offers valuable lessons for founders taking on similarly ambitious category-creation challenges.
Actionable
Takeaways
Timing market entry with macro disruptions:
Metafuels launched during COVID when traditional consulting work slowed, allowing the team to fully focus on their vision. The pandemic created space for deep work on complex technical and business challenges before going to market.
Building credibility in skeptical markets:
Rather than trying to counter every criticism, Kapoor focused on addressing legitimate concerns while demonstrating clear technological and cost advantages. For deep tech founders, this means acknowledging valid challenges while showing how your solution fundamentally changes the equation.
B2B marketing for industrial tech:
With large-scale industrial products, traditional B2B marketing tactics don't apply. Metafuels focuses on building awareness of cost leadership and fostering long-term ecosystem partnerships rather than traditional lead generation.
Strategic scope limitation:
The team made an early decision to avoid food/feed chain competition, demonstrating how technical founders can use clear scope boundaries to strengthen their market position and narrative.
Infrastructure-scale go-to-market:
Metafuels' approach shows how to sequence a major infrastructure play - starting with demonstration facilities, then moving to commercial projects by 2026, before full fuel production and sales in 2028. This creates clear proof points for stakeholders at each stage.
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