Volocopter closes financing round with €153 million

German electric air taxi developer Volocopter has raised €153Mn in the first signing of its Series E funding round led by South Korean investor WP Investment. Volocopter expects that the new capital will accelerate the certification of their electric passenger air cab and its launch in initial cities.

++ This article has been updated. Kindly continue reading below. ++

Volocopter had closed its Series D financing round in March 2021, which raised a total of €200 million for the company. The further Series E round has arguably become necessary as Volocopter had cancelled its planned SPAC IPO in the US at the end of 2021 – the market environment and the results of the IPOs of some of its competitors were not promising.

Existing investors such as Atlantia and Honeywell have participated in the current financing, but new partners have also joined. WP Investment invested in Volocopter as part of the E-Series (and directly led the funding round with an undisclosed sum) and directly signed a joint venture agreement with the German company. The joint venture will launch Urban Air Mobility “in South Korean cities soon,” Volocopter writes. “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,” said Lei Wang, CEO of WP Investment.

“Volocopter has spectacular investors from around the globe, which puts us in an excellent position to focus on our first-to-certification and first-to-market strategies before we embark on the path to public listing,” says Christian Bauer, CCO of Volocopter.

Update 02 November 2022

German electric aerial taxi developer Volocopter has raised 182 million euros in the second signing of its Series E funding round. Together with the first signing in March (see above), the Series E proceeds so far add up to 335 million euros. The money raised will be used for the certification of the electric air taxi Volocity.

New investors include Neom and GLy Capital Management. Neom’s investment comes as less of a surprise: in December 2021, the Saudi Arabian planned city had ordered 15 eVTOLs from Volocopter, and a joint venture was also established to build an eVTOL mobility system.

Between the first and second signing of the Series E, Volocopter achieved some important milestones: the first manned eVTOL test flight with the model named 2X took place at the end of March. The VoloConnect model completed its first flight in June.

“Raising over USD 180 million despite the generally tense economic climate highlights Volocopter’s robust technology strategy and its ongoing progress toward achieving market readiness,” says Christian Bauer, CCO of Volocopter. “We appreciate the remarkable spirit of collaboration and the trust that our existing and new shareholders have placed in us as we forge ahead on our journey to bring the urban air mobility ecosystem to life.”

volocopter.com, volocopter.com (update)