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Volocopter’s recent capital raise should fund the type certification and initial production of its single-passenger VoloCity.
Volocopter returned to the top slot in the June edition of the AAM Reality Index, boosted by a capital raise last month that should resolve its near-term financial concerns.
While the German startup did not disclose the exact amount raised, the new funding should be enough to finance the remaining path to EASA type certification of its single-passenger VoloCity eVTOL, according to Sergio Cecutta of SMG Consulting, publisher of the bimonthly AAM Reality Index.
“I think the money is enough to get to certification and start producing aircraft at its existing production facility, and it should also give them the money to develop their next-generation vehicle,” Cecutta says. “They will need more money when it comes to productize that next-generation vehicle, but for now, it’s enough.”
Following Volocopter (8.6/10) in the latest rankings were EHang (8.5), Beta Technologies (8.0), Joby (7.9) and Archer (7.9), the latter of which ticked up slightly from the previous index following the first completion of a transition from vertical flight to cruise with its full-scale Midnight air taxi.
The biggest mover in the index, however, was Chinese startup Aerofugia, which jumped from 7.1 to 7.4–tied with Wisk for sixth place–bolstered by the completion of a recent fundraising round and the successful transition of its full-scale AE200.
While the company did not disclose the exact amount of money raised, Cecutta estimates, based on his own internal analysis, that the figure “is in the ballpark of $100 million.” This gives Aerofugia a “big leg up” considering that Chinese OEMs generally enjoy substantially lower development costs for AAM aircraft.
Another Chinese eVTOL startup, Volant Aerotech, made its debut on the AAM Reality Index with a score of 6.4, placing it in the No. 15 slot.
The inclusion of Volant represents the sixth OEM based in China on the 28-company index, in addition to Aerofugia, Autoflight, EHang, TCab Tech and Volkswagen.
“Volant has already hovered their full-scale prototype and they are progressing steadily toward transition,” Cecutta says. “They’re doing great work and they’ve got a good chunk of orders already under their belt, so we felt it was important to include them in the index.”
Further down the index, the only other mover was Electra.aero, which rose from 5.3 to 5.4, as it continues to make progress expanding the envelope of its eSTOL aircraft’s short-takeoff-and-landing capabilities, an event that Cecutta describes as roughly analogous to the transition envelope for an eVTOL.
Looking to the months ahead, Cecutta says he is eager to see the host of companies–including Eve, Supernal, SkyDrive, Textron eAviation, Wisk and Vertical Aerospace–which will unveil full-scale demonstrators or prototypes in the second half of the year.
“I’m convinced we’re going to see a ton of activity in the second half of the year, particularly around demonstrators and flight testing,” he says.
Ranked from first to last, the top 15 companies in the June AAM Reality Index were Volocopter (8.6), EHang (8.5), Beta (8.0), Joby (7.9), Archer (7.9), Aerofugia (7.4), Wisk (7.4), Airbus (7.2), Eve Air Mobility (7.2), Vertical Aerospace (7.1), Lilium (7.0), Autoflight (6.8), SkyDrive (6.7), Supernal (6.5) and Volant (6.4).
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