Lannion, France, 12 May 2026. amenai technologies, a Brittany-based startup building AI software for aviation, is among the 2026 laureates of the Bourse French Tech, the national grant programme run by Bpifrance. The award is funded by the Région Bretagne and administered by Bpifrance as research, development and innovation aid.
The grant supports an 18-month feasibility study, from March 2026 to September 2027, of a new product: the Audio Virtual Copilot, a voice-based assistance system for the cockpit of general aviation aircraft.
The project addresses a long-standing pattern in general aviation safety: more than 32% of general aviation accidents occur during approach and landing: the phases where pilot workload peaks and the risk of mid-air conflict is highest.
The Audio Virtual Copilot will combine automatic speech recognition, natural language processing and an aeronautical reasoning model to verbally assist the pilot on:
- navigation and route optimisation;
- airspace structure and restrictions;
- fuel consumption and range;
- automated approach briefings;
- air traffic control communication;
- surrounding traffic.
“This grant comes from the Région Bretagne, administered by Bpifrance under the French Tech. The signal is clear: aviation innovation can be built from our coastline, in Lannion, with a regional ecosystem willing to back long bets.”
Dr Alexandre Menai, President, amenai technologies
No commercial equivalent exists today on the general aviation segment. The project draws on the operational experience of amenai’s five founding partners, all engineers and pilots (private, professional or airline), and on a strategic co-development partnership with TompAero for the aeronautical reasoning model.
The Bourse French Tech recognition adds to amenai’s 2026 institutional support: laureate of the Emergys Bretagne cohort, with backing from the regional deep tech incubator, and supported by the Région Bretagne in the development of its activities in the region.
About amenai technologies
Founded in March 2025 and based at Lannion airport (Côtes-d’Armor, Brittany), amenai technologies builds aeronautical decision-support software for general aviation.
The company develops:
- ELA (Expert LLM Augmentation): a platform that grounds large language models in verified knowledge corpora;
- Pilot Briefer, Aircraft Performance Calculator and NOTAM Briefer: a suite of mobile applications used by more than 4,000 pilots.
Partners include:
- FFPLUM: French Ultralight Federation;
- Info-Pilote: aviation magazine;
- TompAero: co-development partner on the aeronautical reasoning model.
