Lilium Raises $119 Million for Electric Taxi Jets

25.08.2023 - 14:35 / skift.com / Justin Dawes

Four travel tech startups raised $158.5 million over the last week and a half.

>>Lilium, which is developing an all-electric vertical take-off and landing jet, has closed on a funding round of $119 million. 

Participants included Honeywell Aerospace and Aciturri, as well as LGT and affiliated impact investor Lightrock, Tencent, B. Riley Securities, and others. Lilium’s new CEO, Klaus Roewe, as well as three board members also participated.

The capital raise was a concurrent private placement and registered direct offering, the company said. 

Germany-based Lilium (NASDAQ: LILM), which is building an air taxi service, plans to use the latest funding to continue company operations and development of the jet. The company raised $240 million in 2020.  

“These proceeds are expected to strengthen our balance sheet and advance our commercialization efforts including 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,” Roewe said in a statement. 

Saudi Arabia’s national flag carrier Saudia said in October that it plans to purchase 100 jets from Lilium. 

Lilium said in September that European charter airline GlobeAir plans to use 12 of the startup’s planes to serve Southern France and Italy. 

^>>AltoVita, a short-term rental platform designed for business travelers,has raised $9.5 million in an oversubscribed Series A investment round.

The round was co-led by Novum Capital Partners and Fifth Wall. 

The London-based startup plans to use the funding to expand its portfolio, with a plan to deliver 2.5 million properties to businesses and employees across 35 thousand locations by the end of 2023. The company said it currently has a portfolio of 1 million properties in 165 countries and 1,553 cities, including Singapore, Dallas, and Bangalore.

The fund will also go toward strengthening the tech product, improving customer service,. and more. 

Each property has high-speed internet, a washer and dryer, and personalized services, according to the website. 

AltoVita said it has seen business quadruple each year for the past few years. Customers include Hewlett Packard Enterprises, Google and U.S. government agencies, the startup said.  

It was founded in 2018 by Vivi Cahyadi Himmel and Karolina Saviova, born out of what they saw as a lack of available housing options for corporate travelers 

>>RailVision Analytics has closed on a $4 million (CAD $5.5 million) seed funding round, which it said was more than two times oversubscribed. 

It was led by Trucks Venture Capital with participation from new investors MUUS Climate Partners, Blackhorn Ventures,