Lilium has raised a total of $292 million this year following the latest capital raise of $192 million. (Photos: Lilium)
Lilium has coordinated a capital raise totaling $192 million, the eVTOL developer announced this week. After receiving $100 million in funding in May, Lilium has now raised $292 million in 2023 to continue developing its aircraft. The team expects to conduct the first crewed flight of its type-conforming aircraft in the latter half of 2024.
In November 2022, Lilium closed a $119 million capital raise for continued aircraft development.
Earlybird Venture Capital, BIT Capital, UVC Partners, repeat Lilium investor Frank Thelen, several institutional investors led by B. Riley Securities, and E-vestment B.V. all participated in this most recent capital raise along with some of Lilium’s senior executives and board members.
“Our continued mission is to support the decarbonisation of the aviation industry with our revolutionary Lilium Jet,” remarked Klaus Roewe, CEO of Lilium. “We’re thrilled to have such strong support to continue that mission from existing and new investors, including in our own backyard here in Germany.”
“We believe Lilium offers multiple advantages in terms of safety, flight comfort, low noise levels, total cost of ownership, as well as climate impact via their zero emissions,” commented Earlybird co-founder and partner Dr. Hendrik Brandis. “The commercial case is clear and stands to expand inter-urban transportation.”
According to the announcement, Lilium is raising the $192 million in gross proceeds via three transactions:
- An underwritten public offering of shares raising gross proceeds of about $75 million
- A concurrent private placement raising gross proceeds of about $42 million, led by Earlybird, includes UVC Partners, BIT Capital, Frank Thelen, and E-vestment B.V. (in addition to board members and senior executives from Lilium)
- Aceville (an affiliate of Tencent Holdings Limited) is funding $75 million to partially prepay against the total exercise price of the warrants issued to them in May 2023, and this funding is expected shortly.
Lilium and Air-Dynamic SA, a private jet and helicopter company, signed an agreement in May that includes pre-delivery payments for up to five eVTOL aircraft. Around the same time, the eVTOL developer also signed an agreement with ASL Group, a European business jet operator, for six of Lilium’s Pioneer Edition Jets. This followed an MoU that ASL Group and Lilium signed last year.
In March, the Phoenix 2 tech demonstrator aircraft hit its targeted maximum speed during a flight test. It flew at approximately 155 mph, or 136Kts (250+ km/h).
