About Spaera
Founded in 2022. More than £3.4m invested over four years, and public research programmes delivered on time and on budget with academic, class and industry partners.
Origins
Our team spent two decades in Formula 1, EV development and aerospace, leading aerodynamics at Tesla, Sauber F1 and Williams and engine data science at Rolls-Royce. In those industries simulation is trusted with fractions of a per cent. We brought the methods to shipping and work alongside chartered naval architects who trained at Houlder and QinetiQ.
Mesh detail concentrated where the flow demands it, with transient treatment where steady-state approximations fall short.
The rudder holds course against wind-induced yaw and drift within the CFD run, so the model predicts attained speed and resistance.
Real signals extracted from noisy in-service fleets, now applied to 30 years of hindcast weather and live vessel data.
Per-vessel CFD now costs a fraction of a bespoke campaign, making high fidelity affordable at commercial rates.
The team
Founder, Managing Director
Physicist and aerodynamicist. Led aerodynamic performance across Tesla's range for eight years, after MIRA and Williams F1. Founded Spaera to bring vehicle performance methods to cargo ships.
Co-founder, Head of Technology & Innovation
Twenty years of F1 CFD, wind tunnel and correlation work, including leading Sauber's external aerodynamics programmes for third-party clients. Leads Spaera's simulation technology and wind propulsion research.
Co-founder, Head of Finance & Commercialisation
Energy markets specialist. Brokered large LNG transactions and built market risk capability at Shell Trading. Leads Spaera's finance, commercial strategy and the product vision for the VME.
Co-founder, Head of Product & Strategy
Early hire at several EV companies, from Model S exterior systems at Tesla to employee 13 at Canoo. Leads product, partnerships and strategy, and secured Spaera's £1.5m+ of non-dilutive Innovate UK funding.
Lead Data Scientist
Mathematician and Chartered Engineer. Eight years at Rolls-Royce leading a team of data scientists monitoring gas turbine performance, then three years predicting wind turbine failures at ONYX InSight. Leads the VME's data science.
Data Scientist
Naval architect turned data scientist. Ten years designing and analysing vessels and offshore structures at Houlder, where he led the automation of fatigue and motion analysis. Applies machine learning to Spaera's maritime models.
Naval Architect
Naval architect trained at QinetiQ's Haslar site, with experimental fluid dynamics experience at major UK facilities, including leading towing tank test campaigns. Leads Spaera's hydrodynamics and towing tank work.
Progress
Spaera founded. Vehicle performance methods from Tesla, Sauber, Williams and MIRA applied to cargo shipping.
CMDC4 and SSAF delivered. Wind propulsion ship behaviour tested in the towing tank, and future fuel powertrains optimised over real voyages.
CMDC6 delivered. The staged CFD workflow industrialised, with regulatory scoring built in over the vessel lifetime.
More than £3.4m invested, £1.5m+ of it non-dilutive. The VME is launched with vessel owners and technology developers.
The vision
Shipping moves most of world trade and produces around 3% of global emissions. The transition will only happen where the economics work.
Spaera's part is an independent check on each efficiency and emissions decision, from a retrofit today to the zero-emission newbuilds that follow.
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