Japan flying car developer gets $37m Series B

Strive, formerly known as Gree Ventures, also participated, as did Drone Fund, Eneos Innovation Partners, Energy & Environment Investment, and Itochu Corporation, along with its VC arm Itochu Technology Ventures.

Additional contributions came from NEC Corporation, Obayashi Corporation, VeriServe Corporation, and Z Corporation, an investment arm of Yahoo Japan. They were joined by Sumitomo Mitsui Finance & Leasing Company, which controls the fifth-largest aircraft leasing business and the third-largest helicopter leasing business, globally. 

SkyDrive was set up in 2018 by members of an aircraft, drones, and automotive engineers collective developing a two-person electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) multi-copter called Cartivator.

Earlier this week, the company conducted its first public manned flight with a single-seat model said to be the world’s smallest eVTOL vehicle. The machine - 2 meters high by 4 meters wide and 4 meters long - requires only as much space on the ground as two parked cars.

The company, which is targeting both personal mobility and industrial cargo drone services, is currently transitioning from an engineering verification phase to an airworthiness verification phase. This will include work on the aircraft body, the services offering, and navigation capabilities in mountainous areas.

To this end, Eneos will help develop infrastructural supports related to energy supply, while NEC will support efforts around winning societal acceptance of flying cars. Likewise, VeriServe, which claims 35 years’ experience in aerospace safety certification, will provide software-related support.

“We decided to take part in the financing as we feel that SkyDrive’s urban air mobility is a viable solution with the potential of conserving manpower and improving efficiency in hauling supplies to and from construction sites," Naoki Kajita, Obayashi’s general manager for technology, said in a statement.

“By strengthening our relationship with SkyDrive and merging our experience and know-how with SkyDrive’s technology, we expect to improve productivity at construction sites, benefit from greater business opportunities in the next-generation mobility field that is essential to super city and smart city concepts, and jointly contribute to the creation of attractive communities.”

SkyDrive started selling cargo drones in May 2020 and hopes to have an urban air mobility product for sale in Japan by 2023. Previous support for this vision includes a $14 million Series A last year that featured Strive, Itochu Technology Ventures, Z Corporation, Energy & Environment, and Drone Fund. SkyDrive claimed to have 100 corporate partners as of June. Total funding to date comes to around $55.5 million.

“When we think about how the world will look in five to ten years, there is no doubt that flying cars will become widely available in society as a convenient next-generation mobility option and that traveling through the air will be a reality,” Hiroyuki Tsubai, president of machinery at Itochu Corporation, added. “We will team up with other investors to build a more comfortable society where SkyDrive’s flying cars are crisscrossing the skies as a familiar means of transportation.”

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• Topics
• North Asia
• Cleantech
• Technology
• Industrials
• Early-stage
• Japan
• The Development Bank of Japan (DBJ)
• Gree Ventures
• ITOCHU Technology Ventures
• Transportation
• Logistics