Electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles (eVTOL) have become a hot topic recently. Top eVTOL producers are striving hard to create a taxi-airplane that allows customers to travel long distances. Though in the nascent stages, they assure that this mode of transport will be affordable to be used on an everyday basis.
One of the companies that have plunged into this ‘Tesla of the sky’ race is Lilium. The German eVTOL is the producer of Lilium Jet, a promising aircraft that can fly 155 miles.
Fund development of Lilium Jet
Munich-based Lilium has just bagged $119 million in funding from existing shareholders, strategic partners, and new investors. The round saw participation from Honeywell (which backed Volocopter), Aciturri, LGT, and its affiliated impact investor Lightrock (which recently closed €860M), Tencent, B. Riley Securities, and certain affiliates. Also, Lilium’s new CEO, Klaus Roewe, and three additional board members, Barry Engle, David Wallerstein, and Niklas Zennström, participated.
Honeywell has worked with Lilium for nearly two years and entered into a partnership in 2021 to create avionics and flight control systems for Lilium’s electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. Honeywell’s Anthem flight deck is being considered for integration into the electric air taxi developed by Hyundai’s Supernal.
Lilium intends to use the net proceeds from the offerings to continue to fund its operations, develop the Lilium Jet, and for general corporate purposes, which may include payment of Lilium’s suppliers and working capital uses.
“We are pleased to have such a high-quality group of supporters in a challenging macro environment. These proceeds are expected to strengthen our balance sheet and advance our commercialisation efforts including the signing of customer agreements with pre-delivery payments, reaching an agreement with EASA on our Means of Compliance, and commencing assembly of the type-conforming aircraft for the final manned flight test campaign,” CEO Klaus Roewe said.
Stéphane Fymat, Vice President and General Manager of Urban Air Mobility, Honeywell Aerospace said: “Honeywell and Lilium share a common vision of the importance of electric aviation and the positive impact it will have on air transportation and decarbonisation. We are proud to partner with Lilium as the provider of the avionics systems, flights controls, and electric motors used to guide and power Lilium’s revolutionary electric jet.”
eVTOL with 300km range
Lilium was established in 2015 by Daniel Wiegand, Sebastian Born, Matthias Meiner and Patrick Nathen in Munich. Back in 2019, the company revealed the prototype of its five-seater electric air taxi, which completed its maiden flight over Germany. The Lilium Jet can fly at up to 300 km/h and a range of 300km. Lilium’s 800+ strong team includes approximately 450 aerospace engineers and an experienced leadership team.
