The German air taxi startup Volocopter has announced that it has raised €200 million (USD 240 million) in its Series D funding round. Cumulatively, the company has raised €322 million. It says the funding will be used to accelerate the approval of the VoloCity, the battery-powered air taxi for large cities.
The Volocopter is in the final stages of providing new, permanent mobility options for cities around the world. Their future services range from electric autonomous air taxis flying passengers directly and safely to their destinations to transporting goods with the company’s VoloDrone. The startup expects the first commercial air taxi routes to be opened within the next two years.
In recent years, Volocopter has performed several milestone flights in Helsinki, Stuttgart, Dubai, and over Singapore’s Marina Bay. While the first routes are yet to be announced, the company has committed to establishing air taxi services in Singapore and Paris. It is also planning to expand many more routes in the USA, Asia, and Europe.
“Volocopter is ahead of the curve in the UAM industry, and we have the achievements to prove it,” says Florian Reuter, CEO of Volocopter. “No other electric air taxi company has publicly performed as many flights in cities around the world, with full regulatory approval, as Volocopter has. Our VoloCity is the fifth generation of Volocopter aircraft and has a strong path to being the first certified electric air taxi for cities. Volocopter already has the extensive partnerships necessary to set up the UAM ecosystem for launching 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.”
Companies around the world are now in a race to offer the first commercial air taxi. In addition to Volocopter, there are many startups such as Joby Aviation and Lilium, and well-known names like Airbus and Hyundai are competing with each other.
