The ePlane Co. and Apollo Hospitals Partner to Launch Electric Air Ambulances and Medical Drones

• Together, the two organizations aim to close the gap between accident and treatment connecting victims to trauma care in minutes, not hours.

Following a Memorandum of Understanding signed in Chennai, India, and announced today at the Farnborough International Airshow, UK, The ePlane Company and Apollo Hospitals have joined forces to address a critical healthcare challenge: every 3.5 minutes, someone in India dies in a road accident. With over 170,000 lives lost on Indian roads each year, and only 1 in 5 patients reaching trauma care within the critical "golden hour," urban congestion and geographic distance remain some of the biggest barriers to survival - not the absence of medical expertise.

To help close this gap, Ubifly Technologies Private Limited ("The ePlane Company") and Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Limited have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to bring electric air ambulances and medical delivery drones into India's emergency healthcare system, connecting emergency patients across high-density urban corridors and remote access areas directly to the trauma care they need, without the delays of urban traffic or the expense of traditional helicopter transfers.
Why the Golden Hour Matters

For trauma, cardiac, and stroke patients, the first hour after an emergency often determines the difference between recovery and tragedy. Yet today, patients frequently lose that hour to traffic, distance, and the need to stabilize at any nearby facility before being moved again to specialized trauma care thereby losing precious time. This collaboration is designed to change that with a faster, more direct path from the point of emergency to definitive care.
A New Kind of Emergency Network

The ePlane Company's Air Ambulance (Image - eplane.ai) 

The collaboration brings together air and road ambulance network complementing one another::

• Electric Air Ambulances: ePlane's e200X aircraft, designed for rapid inter-hospital transfers, trauma response, cardiac and stroke emergencies, and organ transport, moving patients up to 7 times faster than road transport - at a fraction of the cost of a traditional helicopter transfer. 
• Medical Delivery Drones: Through its subsidiary Amber Wings, ePlane's unmanned aerial vehicles are designed to rapidly move blood products, organs, vaccines, medicines, and diagnostic samples between facilities - cutting critical delivery times from hours to minutes.

Apollo’s Network of 1066 ambulances, hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, and diagnostic centers,

A combination of above, creates the foundation for a connected emergency response system - one that could bring life-saving care to some of India's most congested and difficult to access cities.

Looking Ahead

As part of the collaboration, Apollo has indicated its intent to examine the possibility for orders for e200x air ambulances and Amber Wings' medical delivery drones. The MOU also outlines the possibility of a future strategic investment by Apollo in ePlane, subject to future agreement on terms. Both parties intend to work with India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation and other relevant authorities to help bring this vision to life, alongside continued discussions on infrastructure needed to support these operations.

"India loses far too many lives simply because help cannot arrive in time," said Dr Prathap C Reddy, Chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group. "As the founder of Apollo Hospitals, which pioneered India's private healthcare model, I have long believed that access, along with deep clinical expertise - is what saves lives. This collaboration with The ePlane Company reflects our commitment to bringing Apollo's clinical excellence to every corner of the country, however remote."

"Every minute matters when someone's life is on the line," said Prof. Satya Chakravarthy, Founder & CTO of The ePlane Company. "Working with Apollo Hospitals allows us to explore how our electric aircraft and drones can help close the gap between accident and treatment, especially for the millions of Indians living far from specialized trauma care."

About The ePlane Company

Founded in 2019 and incubated at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) Incubation Cell, The ePlane Company (Ubifly Technologies Pvt. Ltd.) is India's leading deep-tech aerospace manufacturer pioneering the global transition to Advanced Air Mobility (AAM). Headquartered at the 163-acre IIT Madras Discovery Campus in Thaiyur, Chennai, the company operates the nation's first and only dedicated 60,000+ square foot integrated electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) prototyping, manufacturing, and testing facility.

The company is the first private aerospace entity in India to receive a formal Design Organisation Approval (DOA) from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for electric aircraft, and its flagship e200X vehicle is the first eVTOL accepted into the DGCA's official Type Certification pipeline. Backed by over 10,000+ kilometers of cumulative physical flight testing across its ATVA and e50 technology demonstrators, ePlane specializes in high-efficiency, zero-emission aviation architectures tailored explicitly for high-density urban corridors.

Utilizing its patented global "Synergistic Lift" technology, ePlane engineers its aircraft around an ultra-compact 8x11 meter footprint, removing the need for specialized vertiports and unlocking immediate rooftop scalability using standard existing municipal helipads. Backed by world-class institutional capital (Speciale Invest, Antares Ventures, Naval Ravikant) and guided by an elite board of global aviation veterans, The ePlane Company is commercializing a modular airframe built to transform three key multi-billion-dollar verticals globally: high-frequency passenger Air Taxis, critical Air Ambulances, and middle-mile Urban Cargo networks.

For more technical information, explore www.eplane.ai.

About Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Limited

Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd (AHEL) revolutionised healthcare when Dr Prathap Reddy started the first hospital in Chennai in 1983. Today, AHEL is the world's largest integrated healthcare platform with over 10,400 beds across 76 hospitals, 6,600+ pharmacies, 264 clinics, 2,182 diagnostic centres, and 800+ telemedicine centres. It is one of the world's leading cardiac centres, having performed over 3,00,000 angioplasties and 2,00,000 surgeries. AHEL’s 1,20,000 family members are dedicated to delivering exceptional care and leaving the world better than we found it.

The ePlane Company Completes Full‑Scale e200X eVTOL Assembly, Enters Ground Testing for Passenger, Cargo, and Air Ambulance Markets

• The completed aircraft now enters ground and flight testing, the phase that leads to certification and first operations.
• A single platform engineered for three markets, passenger air taxi, urban cargo and air ambulance, the e200X is backed by a board that includes Vishesh Rajaram (Speciale Invest), Eash Sundaram (JetBlue) and Aditya Ghosh (Homage, Akasa Air, formerly IndiGo)

The ePlane Company has completed assembly of its full-scale electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, the e200X, integrating the aircraft’s core subsystems into a single structure. The completed prototype, designated PT-01, moves the e200X from design and simulation into the physical testing phase that precedes flight. The aircraft is designed as one airframe serving three markets: a passenger air taxi, an urban cargo carrier, and an air ambulance.

A completed full-scale airframe is a decisive stage in any aircraft programme, because it establishes what simulation cannot. It validates that the design can be manufactured at full size, that the tooling and supply chain to build it are in place and functioning, and that the subsystems integrate physically into a single structure. It is the stage that separates designing an aircraft from being able to test one.

The e200X will now enter ground testing, in which the structure and onboard systems are subjected to aerodynamic and mechanical loads on specialised equipment at ePlane’s facility, followed by flight testing and the pursuit of Type Certification. Developing a full-scale eVTOL is among the most demanding challenges in contemporary aerospace, and only a small number of programmes worldwide have carried a design through to a complete, full-scale aircraft. With the e200X, ePlane is among them.

The e200X has been designed and assembled at ePlane’s own facilities, with its major systems, the propellers, the airframe structure, the landing gear and the battery pack, developed in-house rather than imported as finished assemblies. In a category where many developers rely on a global supply chain, that vertical integration gives ePlane unusual control over performance, cost and iteration speed.

The company has reached this stage on roughly 21 million US dollars raised to date, a fraction of what many international eVTOL programmes have consumed. Capital-efficient engineering is central to ePlane’s strategy.

Independent analysts value the global eVTOL market at roughly 1.3 billion US dollars in 2023 and project it to reach the 20-to-30-billion-dollar range by 2030, with the broader urban air mobility market on a similar trajectory.

Prof. Satya Chakravarthy, Founder of The ePlane Company said –

We set out to build an electric aircraft to a world-class benchmark, engineered and manufactured in depth in India for the World. We deliberately designed the e200X to be compact, because an aircraft that asks a city to rebuild itself around it will not solve the problem it was built to solve. The same airframe can move people as an air taxi, carry goods as a cargo aircraft, and save lives as an air ambulance, and it can do all three using the infrastructure cities already have. That combination of real capability and capital efficiency is how we intend to compete, and win, in markets around the world.”

ePlane’s ambition is matched by the people behind it. Its board brings together leaders who have built and scaled some of aviation’s most successful businesses: Vishesh Rajaram, Founder and Managing Director of lead investor Speciale Invest, Eash Sundaram, former Executive Vice President and Chief Digital and Technology Officer at JetBlue and founder of JetBlue Technology Ventures; and Aditya Ghosh, who scaled IndiGo into India’s largest airline and went on to co-found Akasa Air; Founder Prof. Satya Chakravarthy and CFO Jayakrishnan R anchor the company’s deep-technology and engineering foundation.

The problems the e200X addresses are shared across the world’s major cities. The World Health Organization estimates that road traffic crashes kill about 1.19 million people globally each year, and survival from time-critical emergencies depends heavily on the golden hour, the window after a trauma or cardiac event in which intervention most determines the outcome.

India, one of the largest emerging markets for urban air mobility, illustrates the gap acutely, recording 172,890 road-accident deaths in 2023 and ambulance availability well below WHO norms. An aircraft that lifts a patient, a passenger or a payload above congestion addresses the single variable, time, that ground mobility cannot.

ePlane will unveil the completed e200X publicly in the coming weeks and then begin a ground testing campaign, followed by flight testing of the full-scale aircraft, building on the subscale prototypes it has already flown. It will pursue Type Certification with India’s DGCA, the first regulator to accept an eVTOL into its certification process, and then seek international validations to open export markets.

First operations will begin with early commercial applications and scale across the passenger, cargo and medical markets as certification milestones are met. The programme has already drawn international recognition: ePlane, incubated at IIT Madras, is among the Indian deep-technology ventures showcased at Bharat Innovates 2026, inaugurated in France in June 2026, and was recently featured in NVIDIA founder Jensen Huang’s GTC keynote in Taipei.

The ePlane Company Integrates German Avionics Giant, HENSOLDT to Power the Digital Brain of India’s 1st Electric Air Taxi

Highlights:

• Strategic Alliance: The ePlane Company has entered into an agreement with Germany’s HENSOLDT Avionics to supply and integrate avionics systems for its flagship e200X eVTOL aircraft. The integration will form the core navigation and mission management architecture of the platform.
• Safety & Situational Awareness: The collaboration centres on equipping the e200X with navigation, landing assistance and secure data connectivity systems to support safe and structured operations in urban environments.
• Prototyping to Production: This move signifies ePlane's transition from prototyping to building certifiable commercial aircraft, with aviation-grade, secure systems.
• Engineering Synergy: A technical alliance combining ePlane’s engineering expertise with HENSOLDT’s technology for the unique aerodynamic and operational profile of a compact eVTOL.

In a significant leap towards redefining urban mobility, Ubifly Technologies (The ePlane Company), India’s leading developer of electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft, has announced a strategic partnership with HENSOLDT Avionics, a global leader from Germany in sensor solutions and mission management electronics.

This integration forms part of the e200X transition from subscale to full-scale prototype development. By integrating HENSOLDT’s advanced avionics suite, ePlane is equipping its flagship aircraft with a "digital nervous system" designed for uncompromising safety, situational awareness, and operational efficiency in dense urban environments.

Avionics Scope for e200X

• EuroNav 7 Next Gen (Digital Moving Map): EuroNav 7 NG ensures the e200x navigates complex cityscapes with precision, providing advanced moving maps and mission management that deliver total situational awareness within the urban canyon.
• CaviSight (Visual Landing Aid): Landing on a rooftop helipad in India requires more than skill; it requires enhanced vision. CaviSight offers video and enhanced vision capabilities that manage camera feeds, provides enhanced intelligence, giving pilots a clear, augmented view and assistance during the most critical phases of flight; takeoff and landing.
• RF1 Smart Antenna (Collision Avoidance): Safety is non-negotiable. The integration of the RF1 Smart Antenna enables cooperative traffic awareness, actively warning the pilot of other aircraft in the vicinity; a crucial feature for the busy skies of tomorrow.
• CaviConnect (Secure Connectivity): Beyond its physical flight capabilities, the e200x operates as a fully integrated, data-driven node within the urban airspace. The integration of CaviConnect ensures a secure, robust datalink between the aircraft and ground stations, enabling the real-time data exchange critical for fleet management and continuous health monitoring.

A Convergence of German Precision and Indian Innovation

This collaboration constitutes a deeply integrated technical alliance. ePlane’s engineers are working in tandem with HENSOLDT to seamlessly integrate these systems, ensuring they seamlessly match the unique flight profile and operational demands of the e200x. The integration of the EB1 Multipurpose Airborne Computer adds a layer of onboard processing power that allows the aircraft to run mission-critical applications smoothly, future-proofing the platform for autonomous capabilities.

This integration supports the e200X certification program under the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), following the internal design freeze of the aircraft’s avionics architecture.

"Building a certifiable eVTOL requires the flawless integration of highly advanced subsystems into a single, harmonious platform. By partnering with HENSOLDT, we aren't just buying components; we are integrating a legacy of aviation safety into the DNA of the e200x. This avionics suite provides the comprehensive situational awareness required to operate safely in dense urban environments”, said Prof. Satya Chakravarthy, Founder & Technical Lead, The ePlane Company

“We are proud to support ePlane in their mission to alleviate urban congestion. Our avionics are designed for the most demanding missions, and the operational profile of an eVTOL in India is the ultimate proving ground. Together, we are defining the standards for situational awareness in the Advanced Air Mobility sector”, said Michael Groeninger, Managing Director, HENSOLDT Avionics GmbH

About The ePlane Company:

Incubated at IIT Madras, The ePlane Company is India’s leading deep-tech aerospace company building the e200X, the nation’s first compact electric air taxi. The company holds the distinction of being the first private Indian entity to receive Design Organisation Approval (DOA) and Type Certification (TC) application acceptance from the DGCA, and is actively defining the country's physical testing and safety benchmarks through its Ground Test Vehicle (GTV) validation phase. Operating out of a state-of-the-art 60,000 sq. ft. engineering and prototyping facility at the IIT Madras Discovery Campus, ePlane combines indigenous manufacturing with a robust global partnership ecosystem—including collaborations with NVIDIA, AWS, Dassault, CADFEM-Ansys and Hensoldt to power its advanced simulation, cloud infrastructure, avionics, and edge computing capabilities. With a strategic initial deployment focused on life-saving utility, the company is launching air ambulances as its first commercial application to cut critical medical transport times across India by up to 7x.

About HENSOLDT Avionics:

HENSOLDT Avionics represents the avionics business of the HENSOLDT Group, a leading company in the European defence industry with a global reach. The company develops situational awareness solutions for civil and military rotorcraft, fixed-wing aircraft, and UAVs, focusing on flight management, mission computers, and connectivity.

IndiGo Parent and US-based Archer Aviation Plan Electric Air Taxis in India By Early 2026

InterGlobe Enterprises, the parent company of IndiGo, has joined forces with Archer Aviation to bring an all-electric air taxi service to India. The two companies plan to launch this service by 2026, offering a quick and efficient travel option between cities.

For instance, the service will enable passengers to travel from Connaught Place in New Delhi to Gurugram in just 7 minutes, a journey that would typically take around 90 minutes by car.

The air taxis will be electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, which are designed to operate similarly to helicopters but with less noise and enhanced safety.

The cost for a 7-minute flight is expected to be around ₹2,000 to ₹3,000.

Initially, the service will focus on Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru, with plans to expand further. This innovative mode of transportation could significantly reduce travel time and contribute to sustainable aviation in India.

Archer Aviation's eVTOL aircraft are planned to transport people in and around cities in an air taxi service and are claimed to have a range of up to 100 miles (160 km) at speeds of up to 150 miles per hour (240 km/h).

Archer Midnight Hero

Archer Midnight interior

Midnight side profile 

Archer's Midnight, a pilot-plus-four-passenger eVTOL aircraft, is designed to be safe, sustainable, quiet and, with its expected payload of over 1,000 pounds, can carry four passengers plus a pilot. Midnight is optimized for back-to-back short distance trips of around 20-miles, with a charging time of approximately 10 minutes in-between.

IndiGo, through its parent company InterGlobe Enterprises, has placed an order for 200 electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft from Archer Aviation. These aircraft are part of their plan to introduce an all-electric air taxi service in India by 2026, aiming to offer a quick and efficient travel option between cities.

Archer's first demonstrator aircraft, called Maker, is a two-passenger fully electric aircraft with 12 electric propellers. It's designed for both forward and VTOL flight and can travel at up to 150 mph over 60 miles (97 km). Maker has received its airworthiness certificate from the FAA and completed its first flight in December 2021.

Archer's aerial ridesharing service, also referred to as Urban Air Mobility (UAM), is planned to begin operations in 2025 in Miami, Florida, and Los Angeles, California. The company is working with various stakeholders to build the necessary infrastructure and service routes to support this new mode of transportation.

Besides IndiGo, several other airlines across the globe are exploring similar initiatives involving electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. Lufthansa Group has partnered with Lilium, an eVTOL aircraft manufacturer, to build a greener aviation network across Europe.

flynas, a leading low-cost airline in the Middle East, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Eve Air Mobility to explore the future of eVTOL aircraft operations in Saudi Arabia. The two are considering starting eVTOL operations in Riyadh and Jeddah by 2026.

United Airlines, which is Archer Aviation's first major corporate partner, along with its regional partner Mesa Airlines, has pre-ordered 200 of Archer Aviation's Maker electric air taxis. United paid Archer $10M of pre-delivery payments for 100 aircraft of the total 200.

Google's Larry Page Cofounded Electric Air-Taxi Startup Raises $450 Mn from The Boeing Company

Wisk, a developer of the first all-electric, self-flying air-taxi in the U.S., has raised $450 million in funding from The Boeing Company. Founded in 2010, Wisk is a joint venture between Boeing and Kitty Hawk Corporation, which was co-founded by Sebastian Thrun and Google co-founder Larry Page.

With this fresh funding, Wisk becomes one of the most well-funded AAM (Advanced Air Mobility) companies in the world. Wisk has previously secured undisclosed funding rounds, which were also led by The Boeing Company.

"This investment will further advance the development of Wisk’s 6th generation eVTOL aircraft, a first-ever candidate for certification of an autonomous, all-electric, passenger-carrying aircraft in the U.S. ", said an announcement release by Wisk.

California-based Wisk is one of the dozens of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) makers however it differs in focusing its efforts on autonomous flight. Wisk intends to operate one of the industry’s largest fleets of AAM eVTOL aircraft. The eVTOL startup aiming to close to 14M annual flights bringing time savings to over 40 million people across 20 cities in the U.S. 

Wisk's eVTOL aircraft will not require a runway and allows to land where its passenger need to be. The company uses self-flying software combined with human oversight, aiming to shape the future of accessible, everyday flight.

In 2017, Wisk claimed to became the first company in the U.S. to successfully fly an autonomous, eVTOL aircraft designed for passenger use. Then in May 2021, Wisk signed its first deal to operate air taxis in the US.

In September last year, space agency NASA began flight-testing with Joby Aviation, which is also an eVTOL startup backed by Uber. Wisk too has partnered with NASA for Urban Air Mobility solutions in the U.S. 

Last year in March, Germany-based Volocopter, also an electric eVTOL startup, raised €200 million in its Series D funding round.

Wisk is a leading Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) company and developer of the first all-electric, self-flying air taxi in the U.S. With more than 140 patents issued on its name, Wisk has designed, developed, and tested five generations of aircraft and is currently developing its 6th generation autonomous eVTOL aircraft.

Marc Allen, Chief Strategy Officer of Boeing said, "With this investment, we are reconfirming our belief in Wisk’s business and the importance of their work in pioneering all-electric, AI-driven, autonomous capability for the aerospace industry. Autonomy is the key to unlocking scale across all AAM applications, from passenger to cargo and beyond. That’s why straight-to-autonomy is a core first principle. Boeing and Wisk have been at the forefront of AAM innovation for more than a decade, and will continue to lead in the years ahead."

NASA and Uber-backed Joby Aviation Testing Electric Air-Taxi Flight

Joby’s all-electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft is pictured at the company's Electric Flight Base, located near Big Sur, California. NASA began flight testing with the aircraft as part of the agency’s Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) National Campaign, Monday. This test runs through Friday, Sept.10. Credits: Joby Aviation

US-based space agency NASA has began flight testing with cab aggregator Uber -funded electric aircraft company Joby Aviation (Joby). Tagged as a Unicorn company, Joby Aviation is an aerospace transportation company developing electric aircrafts. Uber Technologies, Inc has invested a total of $125 million in Joby.

NASA has began testing Joby’s all-electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft as part of the space agency’s Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) National Campaign, announced NASA.

Joby's aircraft has a maximum range of 150 miles on a single charge, can transport a pilot and four passengers at speeds of up to 200 mph.

This testing runs through Friday, Sept.10, at Joby’s Electric Flight Base located in California. This is the first time NASA will test an eVTOL aircraft as part of the campaign.

"In the future, eVTOL aircraft could serve as air taxis for those in cities and surrounding areas around the country, adding another mode of transportation for moving people and goods.", said NASA.

In this round of testing, NASA will collect data from Joby’s eVTOL aircraft, which is intended to serve as a commercial passenger service in the future. Analyzing that data readies the AAM National Campaign to execute the first set of campaign tests, known as NC-1, slated for 2022, with more complex flight scenarios and other industry vehicles.

As the Joby aircraft flies planned test scenarios, the NASA team will collect information about how the vehicle moves, how the vehicle sounds, and how the vehicle communicates with controllers.

The team will deploy the mobile acoustics facility and construct an array of more than 50 microphones to measure the acoustic profile of Joby’s aircraft in different phases of flight.

NASA has also partnered with an another U.S. startup called Elroy Air, which is developing the world's first autonomous drone capable of delivering 300 to 500 pounds (227 Kg) of cargo over a 300-mile (483 Km) range, with no need for airport or electric charging station.

Coming back to Uber connection with Joby, Uber invested $75 million in Joby, in december last year, as part of a broader transaction involving the acquisition of Uber's the aerial ride-hailing division, Uber Elevate, by Joby Aviation and an expanded partnership between the two parent companies.

On August 11, Joby Aviation becomes first U.S.-based eVTOL company listed on public market to begin trading on NYSE.

Volocopter Raises €200 Million in Series D Funding Round

- €200 million (USD 240 million) raised in an oversubscribed Series D funding

- New investors include funds managed by BlackRock, Avala Capital, Atlantia S.p.A., Continental AG, NTT, and Tokyo Century amongst others, with all existing investors also joining the round

- Funding will be used to solidify Volocopter's market leadership

BRUCHSAL, Germany, March 3, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Volocopter, the pioneer of urban air mobility (UAM), announced the signing of their Series D funding round today, raising €200 million in additional capital. Cumulatively, Volocopter has raised €322 million. The funding will be used to solidify Volocopter's leading position in the UAM market by bringing the VoloCity, the battery-powered air taxi for cities, to certification and by accelerating the launch of its first commercial routes.

 
Volocopter is in the final stages of providing new, sustainable mobility options for cities around the world. Their future services range from electric autonomous air taxis flying passengers directly and safely to their destinations to transporting goods with the company's VoloDrone.

Having ten years of development experience, Volocopter is a leader in the urban air mobility space. As the first and only electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) company to receive Design Organisation Approval (DOA) by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), Volocopter expects its first commercial air taxi routes to be opened within the next two years.

"Volocopter is ahead of the curve in the UAM industry, and we have the achievements to prove it," says Florian Reuter, CEO of Volocopter. "No other electric air taxi company has publicly performed as many flights in cities around the world, with full regulatory approval, as Volocopter has. Our VoloCity is the fifth generation of Volocopter aircraft and has a strong path to being the first certified electric air taxi for cities. Volocopter already has the extensive partnerships necessary to set up the UAM ecosystem for launching both our company and the industry into commercial operations. We are called the pioneers of UAM for a reason, and we plan to keep that title."

Volocopter offers a holistic approach to the UAM market by developing a full ecosystem to connect all the vital parts to get the industry off the ground. This includes multipurpose aircraft (VoloCity and VoloDrone), physical and digital infrastructure (VoloPort and VoloIQ), as well as partnerships with global leaders in their respective fields.

"We are thrilled to welcome investors who share our belief that innovative technology like our Volocopter is one of the key enablers for a sustainable future," says Rene Griemens, CFO of Volocopter. "Our shareholder structure remains well balanced with a healthy mix of strategic and financial partners spread as globally as our business ambitions."

New investors in Volocopter include funds managed by BlackRock, global infrastructure company Atlantia S.p.A., Avala Capital, mobility technology giant Continental AG, global technology focused investment fund Jericho Capital, global technology and business solutions provider NTT via its venture capital arm, Tokyo Century, a leading Japanese leasing company, leading family offices, and others. All existing investors, including Geely, Daimler, DB Schenker, Intel Capital, btov Partners, Team Europe, and Klocke Holding amongst others also joined the round.

Volocopter has performed several milestone flights in Helsinki, Stuttgart, Dubai, and over Singapore's Marina Bay in recent years. While the first routes are yet to be announced, the company has committed to establishing air taxi services in Singapore and Paris with plans to expand many more routes in the US, Asia, and Europe.

About Volocopter

Volocopter is building the world's first sustainable and scalable urban air mobility business to bring affordable air taxi services to megacities worldwide. With the VoloCity, the company is developing the first fully electric "eVTOL" aircraft in certification to transport passengers safely and quietly within cities. Volocopter leads and cooperates with partners in infrastructure, operations, and air traffic management to build the ecosystem necessary to 'Bring Urban Air Mobility to Life'.: www.volocopter.com

Japan's NEC shows Flying Car Hovering Steadily for A Minute

Japanese electronics maker NEC Corp. has shown a "flying car," a large drone-like machine with four propellers that hovered steadily for about a minute.

The test flight Monday reaching 3 meters (10 feet) high was held in a gigantic cage, as a safety precaution, at an NEC facility in a Tokyo suburb.
The Japanese government is behind flying cars with the goal of having people zipping around in them by the 2030s.

Similar projects are popping up around world, such as Uber Air of the U.S.

A flying car by Japanese startup Cartivator crashed quickly in a 2017 demonstration. Cartivator Chief Executive Tomohiro Fukuzawa, who was at Monday's demonstration, said their machines were also flying longer lately.

NEC is among the more than 80 sponsor companies for Cartivator's flying car. AP