EDBI joins $100m Series B for flying taxi start-up

Intel Capital led the round with participation from JetBlue Technology Ventures, Toyota AI Ventures, Allen & Company, AME Cloud Ventures, and US angel investor Ron Conway. Series A backers also contributed, including Capricorn Investment Group, 8VC, Sky Dayton and Paul Sciarra, co-founder of social network Pinterest. It brings the company's total funding to at least $130 million.

"Joby Aviation's advanced leadership in the eVTOL industry will significantly alleviate transportation challenges on the ground, and enable rapid and reliable commuting between and within cities," Swee Yeok Chu, CEO and president of EDBI, said in a statement. "We look forward to Joby contributing to Singapore's future urban aerial mobility and car lite vision, which would capture regional mindshare and spur the building of the local innovation capabilities."

Joby was founded in 2009 with a view to marketing a fully-electric five-seat aircraft that is faster and quieter than existing rotorcraft, and able to fly 150 miles on a single charge. It claims to have flight tested a full-scale prototype and to be ready for production of a commercial version. The fresh capital will be used for product development, flight certification and a staff expansion across various engineering and software-related fields.

The company says its technology will be able to solve urban planning problems around congestion and long commute times. This is expected to underpin growth in aerial mobility, including taxi services, in Asian cities including Jakarta and Singapore, the latter of which has identified transportation as a key development area under its smart nation agenda.

Global competitors in the eVTOL passenger vehicle space include Germany's Lilium Aviation, which is backed by Tencent Holdings and the European Space Agency. According to The South China Morning Post, Chinese carmaker Zhejiang Geely has recently acquired Terrafugia, a venture-backed US company that has been working on flying cars since 2006 and claims to have designed the world's first practical model.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• North America
• Technology
• Early-stage
• Singapore
• USA
• EDBI
• Intel Capital
• Transportation
• Cleantech