On the heels of eVTOL startup Lilium shutting down, air taxi builder Volocopter may close its doors having filed for insolvency due to lack of funds. On December 26, 2024, the Karlsruhe Local Court in Germany placed the company in administration.
We've been covering Volocopter for over a decade and with the company's work on developing multi-rotor aircraft and designing the infrastructure to support them, it looked as if it was on solid ground since its founding in 2011. Over the years, Volocopter has taken to the skies over Helsinki, Singapore, and South Korea as deals were cut to set up air taxi services in various locations.
Unfortunately, the eVTOL air taxi sector is going through the same convulsions as the end of the dotcom bubble, with similar results. Many once promising enterprises are falling by the wayside as the field is thinned and investment money starts to concentrate in fewer pockets.
According to a press release, Volocopter will continue to do business during the provisional insolvency proceedings while the company restructures and tries to find new backers by February.
"We are ahead of our industry peers in our technological, flight test, and certification progress," said Dirk Hoke, CEO of Volocopter. "That makes us an attractive company to invest in while we organize ourselves with internal restructuring."
Source: Volocopter
