Currently, the mobility sector is highly dominated by e-scooters and electric vehicles as these help in reducing harmful emissions. With continuous advancements in this sector, electric air taxis services are said to come into picture to save time by avoiding traffic. Volocopter, a German air taxi startup is one of the companies that is working to make short-distance air travel a reality in the coming years.
Volocopter carries the credits of being the first vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) company to get the ‘Design Organisation Approval’ from the European Aviation Safety Authority. The company is already actively pursuing commercial certifications. The first commercial routes for air taxis are expected to be opened in the coming years.
Secures €87M Series C funding!
In a recent development, the German drone startup announced that it has extended its Series C funding round to raise a total of €87 million. Notably, this includes the €50 million it secured in the first closing of the Series C funding back in September 2019 from Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, the Chinese parent company of Volvo Cars. This funding round is led by DB Schenker along with participation from Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Group, TransLink Capital, Lukasz Gadowski and btov and it takes the overall funding raised by Volocopter to €122 million.
Volocopter has announced that this new funding will be used for the certification of the VoloCity (an air taxi service), to hire more industry-specific experts, and the development of a second-generation VoloDrone for the commercialisation of its heavy-life cargo drone.
Hires new board members
In addition to the extension of Series C funding, Volocopter has appointed Yifan ‘Frank’ Li (Vice President of Geely Holding Group Co, and Jochen Thewes, CEO of DB Schenker to its Advisory Board. Furthermore, to enhance its corporate governance, this German air taxi company roped in two independent advisory board members – Dr. Dieter Zetsche, the former CEO of Daimler AG) and Martin Hubschneider, the founder of CAS Software AG.
VoloCity aircraft: An insight
Founded in 2011 by Stephan Wolf and Alexander Zosel, Volocopter is developing VoloCity, an autonomous electric aircraft. It intends to provide air taxi services in the megacities of the world in addition to the current modes of transport.
Recently, the company performed a public flight over the Marina Bay Reservoir in Singapore to display a full-scale VoloPort prototype and demonstrate the maturity of this technology. It also let visitors experience urban air mobility, which could be a standard means of transport in the future.
Main image picture credits: Volocopter
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