Image credit: Volocopter
Bruchsal, Germany-based Volocopter is an urban air mobility company that develops eco-friendly air taxis to transport people. The company announced on Friday that it has raised $170M (approx €154.23M) in the initial signing of its Series E funding round, led by South Korean investor WP Investment, at a pre-money valuation of $1.7B (approx €1.54B).
Prior to this, the unicorn had raised €200M in March 2021. With this, the company’s total funding raised comes to $579M (approx €525.4M) from investors, including Geely, WP Investment, Mercedes-Benz Group, Intel Capital, and BlackRock.
These are the women in science of the Amsterdam startup ecosystem.
Stefan Klocke, Chairman of Volocopter’s Advisory Board says, “Our successful first signing of Series E brings phenomenal new investors on board, with further in the due diligence stage. This private funding round allows us to stay focused on our mission to bring sustainable urban air mobility to life. We are now financially diversified, certification of the aircraft is within reach, and we are demonstrating our advanced capabilities by public flights and strong joint-ventures across the world.”
Investors
The round was led by South Korean investor WP Investment. It is based in Seoul, Republic of Korea, and is a new investor for Volocopter in this funding round. With this development, Volocopter and WP Investment will enter into a strategic partnership by creating a joint venture to bring urban air mobility to South Korea’s cities.
Dr Lei Wang, Chairman of WP Investment, says, “We are confident that Volocopter will be among the first to bring UAM to cities globally, since seeing its aircraft fly in Seoul last year. As a leader in ESG investment, we are excited to empower city sustainability through Volocopter.” Co-Chairman Tiffany Park added, “We are excited to kick off our joint venture and be the first to establish sustainable eVTOL logistics and air taxi services with Volocopter in Korea.”
Besides, new investor Honeywell as well as existing investors Atlantia, Whysol and btov Partners, have all participated in this round.
Capital utilisation
The company claims that the raised funds will assist with the certification of Volocopter’s electric passenger air taxi and is expected to help achieve its commercial launch in first cities worldwide.
Florian Reuter, CEO of Volocopter, says, “This funding round is a testament to Volocopter’s leading position in what is a highly attractive emerging market. We continue to make significant technical and commercial progress as we work toward bringing urban air mobility to life at scale in cities worldwide.”
Volocopter’s mission
The company aims to build the ecosystem necessary to “Bring Urban Air Mobility to Life” by cooperating with partners in infrastructure, operations, and air traffic management.
Volocopter is building the world’s first sustainable and scalable urban air mobility business to bring affordable air taxi services to megacities worldwide. With the VoloCity, the company is developing the first fully electric “eVTOL” aircraft in certification to transport passengers safely and quietly within cities. Besides, VoloCity, it’s family of aircraft includes VoloConnect and VoloDrone.
Founded in 2011 by Stephan Wolf and Alexander Zosel, Volocopter is managed by CEO Florian Reuter, CTO Dr Arnaud Coville, CFO Rene Griemens, and CCO Christian Bauer, chaired by Stefan Klocke. The company employs about 300 people in its offices in Bruchsal, Munich, and Singapore.
The company is the first and only eVTOL company to receive Design Organisation Approval (DOA) from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), Volocopter has committed to launching commercial air taxi services in cities like Singapore, Rome, and Paris.
Recently, Volocopter announced that it has entered a financing agreement in principle with Aviation Capital Group (ACG) to shape the sale and leasing of Volocopter aircraft for up to $1B. Once aircraft certification has been achieved, this agreement will allow Volocopter to offer its operating entities and customers worldwide the leasing options.
How partnering up with Salesforce helped him succeed!
