Drones

Volocopter financing: 200 million euros in Collection D.

The appetite for investments in air taxis or urban air mobility continues to grow, as new Volocopter funding shows.

Volocopter, one of the first working air taxis – and the only company to receive Design Organization (DOA) approval from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) – has a € 200 million Series D funding round (approx. USD 240 million) announced Your funding amounts to EUR 322 million.

“The funds will be used to consolidate Volocopter’s leadership position in the UAM market by certifying the VoloCity, the battery-powered urban air taxi, and accelerating the start of its first commercial routes,” the press release said.

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) includes products described as electric vertical take-off and landing taxis (eVTOL), flying cars, drone taxis, passenger drones, autonomous aircraft (AAV), and infrastructure. Market. In the past few months, the listed EHang has moved considerably. Joby Aviation, which acquired Uber’s UAM project Uber Elevate, has just released an initial video of its prototype vehicle in flight. However, Volocopter was the first company in the air to offer the world’s first working air taxi: the Dubai system was launched back in 2017 to demonstrate how urban air mobility can work.

The press release now states: “Volocopter is in the final stages of delivering new, sustainable mobility options to cities around the world. Their future services will range from electric autonomous air taxis that fly passengers directly and safely to their destination, to transporting goods on the company’s VoloDrone. “

“… Volocopter expects its first commercial air taxi routes to open within the next two years.”

“Volocopter is ahead of the curve in the UAM industry and we have the accomplishments to prove it,” said Florian Reuter, CEO of Volocopter. “No other electric air taxi company has publicly operated as many flights in cities around the world with full regulatory approval as Volocopter. Our VoloCity is the fifth generation of Volocopter aircraft and has a strong path to be the first certified electric city air taxi. Volocopter already has the extensive partnerships needed to build the UAM ecosystem to bring both our company and the industry into commercial operations. We are called the pioneers of UAM for a reason and we plan to keep that title. “

Volocopter’s new investors include funds created by BlackRock, global infrastructure company Atlantia SpA, Avala Capital, mobility technology giant Continental AG, global technology-focused investment fund Jericho Capital, global technology and business solutions provider NTT through its venture capital arm Tokyo Century, a leading Japanese company Leasing company, leading family offices and others. All existing investors, including Geely, Daimler, DB Schenker, Intel Capital, btov Partners, Team Europe and Klocke Holding, also took part in the round.

“We are very pleased to welcome investors who share our conviction that innovative technologies like our Volocopter are one of the keys to a sustainable future,” says Rene Griemens, CFO of Volocopter. “Our shareholder structure remains balanced with a healthy mix of strategic and financial partners as globally distributed as our business ambitions.”

In recent years, Volocopter has carried out several milestone flights in Helsinki, Stuttgart, Dubai and over Singapore’s Marina Bay. While the first routes have yet to be announced, the company has committed to establishing air taxi services in Singapore and Paris, and plans to expand further routes in the US, Asia and Europe.

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