German flying taxi start-up Volocopter files for insolvency

Flying taxi start-up Volocopter has filed for insolvency, days after another fellow German company in the field, Lilium, was saved from collapse. Photo / Thibaud Moritz / AFP

Flying taxi start-up Volocopter said on Monday it was filing for insolvency, days after another fellow German company in the field, Lilium, was saved from collapse.

“Despite recent intensive fundraising efforts, finding a viable solution to maintain regular operations outside of insolvency proceedings has not been possible,” Volocopter said in a statement, adding that the filing was made on December 26.

The company, founded in 2011, is now on the hunt for investors, and court-appointed administrator Tobias Wahl said the aim was “to develop a restructuring concept by the end of February”.

Volocopter had been aiming to enter the market in 2025 with its two-seater “Volocity” electric air taxi model.

It suffered a setback when it had to cancel test flights in Paris during this summer’s Olympics at short notice as the certification for its aircraft engine didn’t come through in time.

In December, Volocopter said the Volocity model had fulfilled 75% of the criteria required by the European Union’s Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).

The firm is also working on a five-seater model which it hopes to present in 2027.

Germany’s entrants in the burgeoning “electric vertical takeoff and landing” (eVTOL) sector have struggled to keep up with US and Chinese competition.

Last week, a company set up by a consortium of European and North American investors swooped in to save Lilium, which had filed for bankruptcy in October.

Lilium has also been developing small electric-powered jets that can take off and land vertically.

That case renewed debate about Germany’s support – or lack thereof – for the country’s start-up scene.

Critics have long lamented a dearth of funding for young, innovative companies, comparing the situation in Germany unfavourably with that in the United States and elsewhere.

In October, Lilium’s boss Klaus Roewe said other countries were actively backing his firm’s rivals in a highly competitive field.

Volocopter CEO Dirk Hoke told Capital magazine this year “in a sector which is as technologically complex and capital-intensive as ours, we have to look to the state” for support.