Bruchsal – Saudi Arabia’s large-scale smart city project, NEOM, has joined a Series E Financing Round for Volocopter. The urban air mobility pioneer will use the funds for the certification of its electric air taxi and to launch its first commercial routes.

The urban air mobility (UAM) specialist Volocopter has raised an additional 182 million US dollars in the second signing of its Series E funding round, announced a company statement. NEOM, Saudi Arabia’s smart city project on the Red Sea, and GLy Capital Management of Hong Kong have joined the company’s investor base. The new funds will be used to certify Volocopter’s electric passenger aircraft, the VoloCity air taxi, and to launch its first commercial routes. 

Volocopter writes that its “UAM ecosystem approach connects all key global market players as it strives to get the industry off the ground”. In 2021, it signed a joint venture company with NEOM to integrate the VoloCity air taxi and the VoloDrone into the Saudi Arabian smart city’s “seamlessly connected mobility systems”. 

“At NEOM we strongly believe in the potential for urban air mobility to provide a new dimension to future integrated transport systems,” commented Florian Lennert, Head of Mobility at NEOM, in the statement. He said NEOM was excited to “strengthen our partnership and to make a strategic investment in the future of mobility”.

Volocopter has over 10 years of UAM development experience. It expects to launch its first commercial air taxi routes in the next two years in megacities like Singapore, Rome, Paris, and the NEOM region. Its Series E funding round remains open.