Volocopter, the startup out of southern Germany (Bruchsal) that has been developing electric VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) aircraft and a business model for operating them in taxi-style fleets in urban areas, has picked up another big round of funding as it inches closer to its first commercial launches.
It raised $170 million, funding that it said it will be using to kick off its first air taxi services, which it noted in an announcement would be “in cities like Singapore, Rome, and Paris.”A spokesperson said the commercial launch will depend on the type of certification it gets and when. If fully achieved in the latter half of 2023, the commercial launch in the first cities is expected to be 2024. Florian Reuter, CEO of Volocopter, told us in March 2021 that the services were two years out (so, 2023).
“Our target is to start commercial flights by Paris Olympics 2024,” said a spokesperson for the company.
The money is part of a Series E, and Volocopter describes it at a first closing made at a pre-money valuation of $1.7 billion, which works out to a post-money valuation of $1.87 billion. Volocoper has confirmed to me that the full target for the Series E is €300 million to €500 million ($330 million to $550 million). “We have other investors in the due diligence phase, but we do not know the timing of the next signing round nor the full amount yet,” a spokesperson said.
This first tranche is being led by WP Investment, a new backer of the company from South Korea, with strategic investor Honeywell (also a new investor) and previous backers Atlantia, Whysol, btov Partners, and other unnamed existing investors also participating. It has raised $579 million to date, and other investors include Geely, Mercedes-Benz Group, Intel Capital and BlackRock.
In 2017, Volocopter made a big mark in the autonomous vehicle space when — backed by giants like Intel — it ran its first autonomous flying car test in Dubai. (Intel also imported and showed off the Volopter’s self-flying capabilities at an over-the-top event of its own.) TechCrunch - link - Ingrid Lunden - link - more like this - link
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