\Mobility News/ Baillie Gifford backs Lillium’s flying taxi vision Flying taxi company Lilium has bagged $35m from Baillie Gifford, the UK investment firm known for backing disruptors like Tesla, SpaceX, Airbnb and Spotify. By Maija Palmer 9 June 2020 \Mobility Lilium announces first US flying taxi hub in Florida By Maija Palmer 11 November 2020 \Mobility News/ Baillie Gifford backs Lillium’s flying taxi vision Flying taxi company Lilium has bagged $35m from Baillie Gifford, the UK investment firm known for backing disruptors like Tesla, SpaceX, Airbnb and Spotify. By Maija Palmer 9 June 2020 Flying taxi company Lilium has bagged $35m from Baillie Gifford, the UK investment firm known for taking bets on tech disruptors like Tesla, SpaceX, Airbnb and Spotify. The new funding is an extension of the $240m Series C funding round Lilium raised just three months ago, and puts the total the company has raised at more than $375m. “There is a huge opportunity for us to make commutes shorter.” Advertisement Coronavirus turmoil notwithstanding, Lilium is still planning to start offering electric flying taxi services in its vertical take-off and landing planes from 2025 — less than five years from now. Remo Gerber, Lilium’s chief commercial officer, says that if anything, the company is likely to be helped by some of the ways the coronavirus pandemic is changing people’s working lives — particularly the trend of remote working. “People might want to live more in the countryside and only commute into an office once a week. There is a huge opportunity for us to make that commute shorter — a trip that could take two hours by train might be only 20 minutes in an aircraft,” says Gerber. Lilium’s fixed-wing electric aircraft are aimed at city-to-city commuting (other types of electric flying taxis like Volocopter tend to be best for shorter, within-city flights). The company is positioning itself as a cheaper alternative to high-speed rail services. “It can be up to 1,000 times cheaper than building rail links and it means that smaller towns can be connected. Even when the UK’s HS2 rail link is built, it will be focused on just a few main cities. But three villages in the Cotswolds could put in a flying taxi landing pad and have a fast transport link without having to put a high-speed railway through the most pristine parts of the countryside,” he says. It can stop regional transport from being dependent on big, slow, central government projects. “Private investors and individual towns can make decisions on transport links. It really changes the way we think about mobility,” says Gerber. Lilium has now grown to more than 450 employees and is starting to build out a factory in Munich to mass produce electric air taxis for the fleet. Cutbacks and layoffs at traditional aviation companies is making it easier for Lilium to hire the specialists it needs. Baillie Gifford has also invested in US-based Joby Aviation, Lilium’s closest competitor, which raised a $590m Series C round in January. Advertisement Help Sifted get bigger and better (and get a sneak peak at our future plans). Please take our reader survey. Take the survey Terms of Use Related Articles Only 21% of tech unicorns are led by women, report shows By Freya Pratty Click here to read more Black entrepreneurs receive just 0.24% of capital in the UK By Freya Pratty Click here to read more Systemic barriers for minority business owners persist, report shows By Freya Pratty Click here to read more Time to stop using the term BAME By Erika Brodnock and Johannes Lenhard Click here to read more Get the best of Sifted in your inbox By entering your email you agree to Sifted’s Terms of Use Sign up to \Future Proof Sifted’s weekly \Corporate Innovation roundup email By entering your email you agree to Sifted’s Terms of Use Most Read 1 \Fintech Starling Bank wants to buy a lender 2 \Startup Life Chief of staff: the ‘must-have hire’ for startup CEOs? 3 \Fintech The 10 fastest fintechs to reach billion dollar valuations 4 \Venture Capital Rich Europeans need to invest 10% of their money into tech and stop buying stupid stuff like hotels 5 \Public and Academic European Commission makes its first equity investments into startups Join the conversation Subscribe Notify of new follow-up comments new replies to my comments
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