Unum closes investment round ahead of ambitious expansion plans

London, UK – 15 February 2023: Business class seating manufacturer Unum Aircraft Seating has successfully closed a significant investment round as it seeks to expand its team, scale up its facilities, develop new products and gain new product certifications. 

Origin Capital and the Low Carbon Innovation Fund 2 (LCIF2) have become new Unum partners via the investment round, which will support ambitious development plans across Unum’s business.

Chris Brady, Founder and CEO, Unum, says: “This investment round has been a real vote of confidence in our vision to be the sustainable and credible alternative in business class seating. With the support of our investors, we have exciting programme of development ahead of us across our product, teams and facilities – so watch this space!”

Unum is set to expand its range of seats and achieve initial certifications on all products. It will also expand its team, with senior hires planned to build operations, supply chain and through life support teams in readiness for an initial customer programme, expanding on the company’s existing design and certification teams. Unum is also set to create an initial factory blueprint, gain regulatory approvals and invest in the required capital equipment to support its initial production requirements. 

Tim de Vere-Green, Founder and CEO at Origin Capital, says: “We have been very impressed by the capabilities and experience of Unum’s leadership team, their passion for the inflight cabin product, and their vision for the business as the credible alternative in premium class seating. As the aerospace market swiftly recovers from the pandemic, and with the global aircraft fleet set to double in the next 20 years, we believe there are significant opportunities for Unum, which offers a great product, produced sustainably.”       

David Wright, Director of LCIF2 fund manager Turquoise International, says: “We were attracted to Unum’s commitment to place sustainability at the heart of its organisation – reducing embedded carbon within the seat by choosing the most sustainable materials available, and having an elegance and simplicity of design to reduce weight and therefore fuel burn over the life of the seat. Unum’s products will make a significant contribution to their customers’ journey to net zero.”  

Andrew McAuliffe of Origin, and David Wright of LCIF2, will join Unum’s board of directors.