In a significant blow to the future of eVTOL aircraft in Europe, German eVTOL company Volocopter filed for bankruptcy protection this week.
Specifically, Volocopter GmbH filed an application to open insolvency proceedings at the Karlsruhe Local Court on 26 December 2024.
The Karlsruhe Local Court began the provisional insolvency administration the following day and appointed Tobias Wahl, partner and attorney at Anchor Rechtsanwältegesellschaft mbH, as its administrator.
Insolvency is a financial state where an individual or business cannot meet their debt obligations when they become due, and a filing allows a company to potentially resolve these through various means, such as debt restructuring or improved cash flow, enabling them to maintain control over their business during the process.
According to a statement released by the company
"Numerous successful financing rounds have driven the company's development and operations in the past.
With one of the lowest burn rates in the industry, Volocopter has successfully operated in an extremely difficult financial environment.
However, despite recent intensive fundraising efforts, finding a viable solution to maintain regular operations outside of insolvency proceedings has not been possible."
Business operations will continue as usual during the provisional insolvency proceedings. The provisional insolvency administrator has now held a staff meeting to inform employees about the current situation and answer initial questions about the proceedings. In addition, Tobias Wahl has initiated an investor process.
"The company needs financing to take the final steps towards market entry. We will endeavor to develop a restructuring concept by the end of February and implement it with investors," explains Tobias Wahl.
Volocopter has developed several eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) aircraft models with varying speed ranges. The speed range across Volocopter's aircraft models spans from approximately 90 km/h to 250 km/h, with variations depending on the specific model and its intended use case. The VoloCity and Volocopter 2X, designed for shorter urban trips, have lower speed ranges, while the VoloConnect, aimed at longer suburban connections, offers higher speeds.
The first eVTOL company to receive Design Organisation Approval by the European Aviation Safety Authority (ESA, Volocopter has performed over 2000 test flights since 2011, including a series of operational test flights near Paris at the Aerodrome of Saint-Cyr-l'École in 2024. and has over $544.4 million in funding, most recently raising an undisclosed round in June 2024.
The company announced leadership changes in September and hired Oliver Vogelgesang as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
Its investors include Daimler, Geely, DB Schenker, TransLink Capital, Japan Airlines and Sompo Japan Insurance. In February 2023, Volocopter's Series E funding commitment from Japanese trading company Sumitomo Corp, aimed to bring Japanese VoloCity eVTOL aircraft into service by 2025. The company previously raised $182 million from Red Sea regional developer NEOM and Hong Kong's GLy Capital Management with a growth pathway aimed at Hong Kong and the Middle East.
According to Dirk Hoke, CEO of Volocopter:
"We are ahead of our industry peers in our technological, flight test, and certification progress. That makes us an attractive company to invest in while we organize ourselves with internal restructuring."
In 2024 the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released the final regulations for tiltrotors and VTOL aircraft, including electric variants, the first new class of aircraft approved in 40 years. Further, in the US, Archer Aviation obtained FAA approval to launch commercial operations in 2026 and has expanded its focus to military applications with an exclusive deal with defence contractor Anduril to develop military aircraft.
However, in Europe, German eVTOL company Lilium announced that two of its subsidiaries filed for insolvency following unsuccessful talks with state and federal governments to solve its financial crisis. However, it's not all bad news with a newly incorporated German company called Mobile Uplift Corporation agreeing to purchase the “operating assets” of Lilium GmbH and Lilium eAircraft GmbH .
That said, the actual success of a competitive European eVTOL industry is up in the air. Volocopter aims to enter the market in 2025, although the likelihood of this occurring is questionable.
Would you like to write the first comment?
Login to post comments