Over the last year, major steps have been made toward taking flying taxis from something many associate with the future to actually bringing them to several cities around the world.

Last week, San Jose-based Archer Aviation signed a deal to launch a series of its electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) aircraft in the United Arab Emirates capital of Abu Dhabi.

In the United States, Joby Aviation  (JOBY)  is currently working to secure regulatory authorization to start running a similar air taxi from downtown Manhattan to JFK Airport in 2025. Delta  (DAL)  and Uber  (UBER)  were some of the major names to invest in the Santa Cruz-based manufacturer.

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German air taxi manufacturer says it will need more funds to launch

Over in Europe, German-based startup Volocopter has also been working on a similar type of air vehicle designed for transporting smaller numbers of people. 

The company initially raised €500,000 ($520,000 USD) in a seed round back in 2011. 

With investors currently seeing significant potential in flying taxis, Volocopter spent the next decade securing numerous funding rounds including an additional $182 million from Hong Kong- and Egypt-based investors in 2022. Germany’s Mercedes-Benz was also an early investor.

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Chief executive Dirk Hoke said the company “successfully operated in an extremely difficult financial environment” but “despite recent intensive fundraising efforts, finding a viable solution to maintain regular operations outside of insolvency proceedings has not been possible.”

On Dec. 30, Volocopter announced that it was filing for bankruptcy in German courts in order to receive the financial protection necessary to stay operational and still launch in 2025 as planned.

Volocopter files for bankruptcy, says it remains ‘attractive to invest in’

The high costs around developing a new product make it a particularly tough environment even for companies that catch the attention of high-profile investors. 

Fellow German eVTOL startup Lilium was forced to briefly shut down operations last week before a coalition of European and North American investors known as Mobile Uplift Corporation was able to rescue it by acquiring two of its subsidiaries. 

Lilium will now be rehiring the 1,000 workers the company laid off when it closed down.

“We are ahead of our industry peers in our technological, flight test, and certification progress,” Hoke said further. “That makes us an attractive company to invest in while we organize ourselves with internal restructuring.”

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Coming to Volocopter from his role as head of the Airbus  (EADSF)  Defence & Space unit, Hoke is stepping down from his role as CEO in February 2025 as the company goes through a wider executive restructuring that brought in Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche on the aircraft manufacturer’s board.

The request for insolvency protection would buy Volocopter time as it looks for new investments. 

The eVTOL that Volocopter is currently in the process of developing can carry two people a distance of 35 kilometers (22 miles).

The company was initially promising to launch for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris but later pushed that launch date back to 2025 as it seeks to obtain European EASA certification.

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