Thomas d’Halluin is the Managing Partner of Airbus Ventures (AV), based in Silicon Valley. AV is the independent investment arm of its founding limited partner, the multinational aerospace company Airbus SE, and is today supported by multiple LPs in its mission to invest in the future of aerospace. The fund’s investment thesis includes autonomous mobility, electrification, low-carbon economy, advanced materials, manufacturing systems, next-generation computing, sensing, security, and beyond.
Airbus Ventures made several investments over the past year, a number of which were in space tech, including US-based space startup Impulse Space, which is focused on developing transportation services for the inner solar system. The fund contributed to its series A round in June 2023. Airbus Ventures also contributed to the $5m seed round for Helicity Space, another Airbus Ventures portfolio company, at the end of last year. Helicity Space is developing a form of fusion propulsion – something that, up until now, has only existed in science fiction novels.
The unit currently has 55 portfolio companies, with $460m of capital committed
But it is not all space focused for d’Halluin. During the past year, he has overseen investments into such areas as drones, security tech, advanced materials and robotics – Airbus Ventures supported Japanese startup Telexistence’s $170m series B round last year, alongside SoftBank and others.
The unit currently has 55 portfolio companies, with $460m of capital committed.
With two decades of experience in the aerospace industry, and trained as a mechanical engineer, d’Halluin has worked in manufacturing, procurement, supply chain, and finance roles throughout Europe and China, and was based in Shanghai for three years. In 2016, d’Halluin was named as a French-American Foundation Young Leader for the United States. He also served as Chief of Staff to Airbus CFO.
He holds a Master of Science degree in mechanical engineering from McGill University/Ecole des Mines.
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