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NEOM and GLy Capital Management join financing round
Funds to be used for aircraft certification & launching first commercial routes
Bruchsal, Germany, 1 November 2022 – Volocopter, the pioneer of urban air mobility (UAM), has raised an additional USD 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. This will carry the company beyond the certification of its electric passenger aircraft, the VoloCity air taxi.
Sustainable mobility is a tremendous challenge facing today’s world. Volocopter offers a new solution with a suite of fully electric aircraft built specifically for urban missions. Crucially, Volocopter’s unique and holistic UAM ecosystem approach connects all key global market players as it strives to get the industry off the ground. 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).
Volocopter is a UAM leader, with over ten years of development experience and upward of 1,500 successful test flights to its name. As the first and only electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) company to receive 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.
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 is backed by Geely Holding, a long-term partner of Volocopter. In their joint venture, Geely and Volocopter aim to bring UAM to China. With its high density of megacities, China is expected to become one of the largest markets for electric air taxis.
With many interested companies having passed the due diligence phase, Volocopter’s Series E funding round remains open.
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About NEOM
NEOM is an accelerator of human progress and a vision of what a New Future might look like. It is a region in northwest Saudi Arabia on the Red Sea being built from the ground up as a living laboratory – a place where entrepreneurship will chart the course for this New Future. It will be a destination and a home for people who dream big and want to be part of building a new model for exceptional livability, creating thriving businesses and reinventing environmental conservation.
NEOM will be the home and workplace to more than a million residents from around the world. It will include hyperconnected, cognitive towns and cities, ports and enterprise zones, research centers, sports and entertainment venues, and tourist destinations. As a hub for innovation, entrepreneurs, business leaders and companies will come to research, incubate, and commercialize new technologies and enterprises in groundbreaking ways. Residents of NEOM will embody an international ethos and embrace a culture of exploration, risk-taking and diversity – all supported by a progressive law compatible with international norms and conducive to economic growth.
For further information email media@neom.com or visit www.neom.com and www.neom.com/en-us/newsroom
Find out more about NEOM Mobility at: www.neom.com/en-us/sectors/mobility
About GLy New Mobility Fund
The GLy New Mobility Fund is a global mid-to-late-stage private equity fund based in Hong Kong. Backed by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, the fund invests into startups that disrupt the transportation industry. Key areas of focus are electrification, smart cars, smart cities, mobility as a service (MaaS) and materials. The New Mobility Fund has invested in several mobility startups globally such as Polestar, ECARX, Freewire, Ascend Elements, Nexeon.
About GLy Capital Management Limited
GLy Capital Management Limited is a Hong Kong based investment management entity holding SFC type 1, 4 and 9 licenses. The Company is majority owned by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group. For further information, visit: www.glycm.com.
About Volocopter
Volocopter brings urban air mobility (UAM) to megacities worldwide. We aim to improve the quality of life for people in cities by offering a fantastic new mode of transportation. For that, we create sustainable and scalable UAM ecosystems with partners in infrastructure and operations.
Volocopter’s family of eVTOL aircraft will offer passengers (VoloCity and VoloRegion) and goods (VoloDrone) swift, secure, and emission-free connections to their destinations, supported by VoloIQ, the UAM ecosystem’s software platform that serves as its digital backbone for safe and efficient operations.
As a pioneer in the UAM industry, Volocopter will launch commercial services within the next few years. Founded in 2011, the company employs more than 500 people in Germany and Singapore, has completed over 1,500 successful public and private test flights, and has diverse investors, including Geely, NEOM, Mercedes-Benz Group, Intel Capital, and BlackRock. www.volocopter.com