Volocopter raises $182 million in second Series E funding round

Urban air mobility (UAM) company Volocopter (Bruchsal, Germany) has raised an additional $182 million in the second signing of its Series E funding round. NEOM — the Red Sea’s smart, cognitive region project — and GLy Capital Management of Hong Kong have joined Volocopter’s diverse investor base (see “Volocopter raises $170 million for composite eVTOL in first signing of Series E funding”). This will carry the company beyond the certification of its electric passenger aircraft, the VoloCity air taxi, of which the company is applying composites to the entire airframe, rotor planes and seats.

Volocopter offers a suite of fully electric aircraft built specifically for urban missions. This includes developing multipurpose electric aircraft to bring passengers and goods safely to their destination (the VoloCity, VoloRegion and VoloDrone), and enabling the physical and digital infrastructure to match (the VoloPort and VoloIQ).

The company says it has more than 10 years of development experience and upward of 1,500 successful test flights to its name. Having received design organisation approval (DOA) from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), Volocopter expects to launch its first commercial air taxi routes in the next two years in megacities like Singapore, Rome, Paris and the NEOM region.

“Raising over $180 million despite the generally tense economic climate highlights Volocopter’s robust technology strategy and its ongoing progress toward achieving market readiness,” Christian Bauer, CCO of Volocopter, says. “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 UAM ecosystem to life.”

Volocopter and NEOM signed a joint venture (JV) company in December 2021, becoming strategic partners with a view to integrating the VoloCity air taxi and the VoloDrone into NEOM’s sustainable, smart and seamlessly connected mobility systems. The JV will design, integrate and operate the region’s all-electric public flight routes for the initial seven years post-launch.

GLy, backed by Geely Holding, a long-term partner of Volocopter, aims to bring UAM to China. “Volocopter’s vision encompasses industrial short- and medium-range commercial passenger applications to bring efficiency to the way we move around our cities,” Hrvoje Krkalo, co-CEO of GLy Capital, adds.

With many interested companies having passed the due diligence phase, Volocopter’s Series E funding round remains open.