Volocopter closes $200 million financing round
Volocopter has raised over 200 million euros in its Series D financing round. The money will be used for the approval process of the e-taxi VoloCity and the accelerated opening of the first commercial routes.
According to Volocopter, the financing round was oversubscribed. The new money comes from “all existing investors” as well as funds managed by BlackRock, Avala Capital, Atlantia S.p.A., Continental AG, NTT and Tokyo Century. The €200 million funding will be used to further expand Volocopter’s market leadership, the company said.
“No other electric air taxi company has publicly performed as many flights in cities around the world, with full regulatory approval, as Volocopter has,” said CEO Florian Reuter of the company’s successes to date. “Our VoloCity is the fifth generation of Volocopter aircraft and has a strong path to being the first certified electric air taxi for cities.” Through the partnerships, he says, they can draw on the necessary expertise to open the first routes in the next few years.
Reuter emphasises their holistic approach, as they are not only developing the aircraft, but the complete Urban Air Mobility(UAM) ecosystem. In addition to the VoloCity for passenger transport, this also includes the VoloDrone cargo drone and the physical and digital infrastructures (VoloPort and VoloIQ).
The company, founded in 2011, had closed its C-Series financing in September 2019. In the round of around 50 million euros, Geely, among others, had joined Volocopter. Geely-owned Daimler is one of the early investors in Volocopter and, like Geely, participated in the current round. By early 2020, the company had decided to opt for another financing round, this time finding support among companies including DB Schenker.
The D-Series funding of 200 million euros significantly exceeds the cumulative result of the previous three rounds of 85 million euros. It also demonstrates the funding needs the company sees for the coming steps towards commercial deployment.
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