The Bavarian company Lilium has raised capital for further work on its planned air taxi. The capital increase, which should help the Lilium Jet to take off manned for the first time in the second half of 2024, totaled 250 million US dollars (around 227 million euros). At least 100 million US dollars will come from Hong Kong investor Tencent, which previously participated in the financing of Lilium Notice to the US Securities and Exchange Commission out.
The capital increase will cover most of the costs that have to be raised up to the manned premiere, informed Lilium. This means that the development program can be continued at “full speed”, said Lilium CEO Klaus Roewe. He continues to speak to existing and potential future investors. Lilium last raised fresh money in November 2022, the capital increase amounted to $ 119 million.
Market launch 2025?
The market launch of the all-electric, vertical take-off flying taxi that Lilium is developing was originally planned for 2024. In April 2022, the company pushed back the date to 2025. The then CEO Daniel Wiegand explained that it was a highly complex program and that Lilium did not want to compromise on security.
The Munich start-up was able to complete a first successful test flight with a prototype in 2017, a newer version took off two years later and then hovered in place.
In the past, the company’s goals were doubted. Former employees had reported that the prototype, which fell victim to a fire in 2020, failed to bring the propulsion propellers completely from the vertical to the horizontal orientation. Lilium announced a larger version of the planned five-seater in 2021, the certification of which was originally planned for this year.
(Image: Lilium)
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