WionDrive News Desk 
Leading urban air mobility player Volocopter GmbH filed for insolvency Thursday, expressing that it can no longer secure fresh funding while continuing to operate as normal. As it starts insolvency proceedings Monday, the company, headquartered in Bruchsal, Germany, announced the news.
Volocopter, backed by Mercedes-Benz and Honeywell, said it planned to carry on business while pursuing further financial support during the proceedings.
But the company says it has been unable to come up with a viable solution to allow regular operations to continue outside insolvency proceedings, and despite recent intensive fundraising efforts.
It was electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) sector pioneer Volocopter that, while still in financial straits to its own degree, has been the most radical force in the nascent industry seen to take on crucial tasks of urban transportation. The eVTOL business is a capital intensive business—essentially everything takes money, from research and development to certification costs—and without significant and sustained investment, no company has been able to operate for any length of time.
Across the sector, this challenge has been obvious, as evidenced by its neighbor Lilium, another eVTOL developer, that laid out plans in November to file for insolvency after being unable to deal with its financial predicament.
Volocopter, founded in 2011, made a name for itself as an innovator of sustainable urban transport. As a flagship product, the company’s VoloCity was due to launch into the market in 2025, as a new urban air taxi option for travel in short spans.
An important eVTOL industry blow is the announcement of insolvency. Margins, analysts say, have tightened because venture capital funding is drying up and because, by extension, the time to regulatory approval is too long.
The insolvency process in which Volocopter is now proceeding depends on the company’s ability to secure new investments or restructure their business. The outcome will not only affect Volocopter’s ambitions but also raise questions about the broader viability of the air taxi market, particularly in Europe, where substantial interest and investment have been directed toward developing the nascent technology.
