Geely's China eVTOL unit gets Series A funding

This is the company's first round of external fundraising. Oriza Seed also took part. The new capital will go towards the development and commercialisation of the AE200 - an in-house developed model that seats six and can travel up to 200 kilometres. This fits the needs of China’s urban clusters, according to a statement.

Founded in 2020, Aerofugia was able to leverage Geely’s industrial value chain across batteries and key electric components, ensuring high-quality, stable and cost-effective supply. At the same time, it cooperates with Geely’s transport platforms such as Caocao and StarRides to create usage scenarios.

The new funding round is hoped to facilitate collaboration between Aerofugia and Sino Jet, the largest business jet operator in Asia Pacific and a Tsinghua Holding Capital portfolio company. 

Aerofugia claims to be the only player in its space in China to complete a test flight of a tilt-rotor aircraft above 2 tons. The goal is to obtain the first domestic tilt-rotor certification. Tilt-rotor technology combines the vertical takeoff and landing and hovering capabilities of a helicopter with the high speed and long-distance cruising capabilities of a turboprop.

Recently, United Aircraft, which focuses on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), expanded into next-generation tilt-rotor aircraft. It raised CNY 1.2bn (USD 167m) in an extended Series D last month after an initial series D of CNY 2bn in March.

EVTOLs have emerged as a prominent theme among private equity investors globally. Going electric means a simpler design – hence the improved safety level because there is less scope for malfunction – and a much lower cost. Space is another advantage. Conventional small aircraft tend to be single-engine or twin-engine; eVTOLs allow for multiple choices.

Other investments in the space include a CNY 100m pre-Series A for Shanghai-based TCab Tech. Last year, there were also early-stage rounds for Zero Gravity and Volant. They are following in the footsteps of AutoFlight, which was founded in 2017 and received a Series A of USD 100m in 2021.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Early-stage
• Technology
• China
• Tsinghua Holdings Capital (TH Capital)
• Oriza
• Transportation