german firm lilium announces that it has finally secured 90 million dollars from a series B funding round, for its next jet design. indeed, this will be invested for the development of a five-seat ‘lilium jet’ that will be used for commercial flights and also help expand the practice’s team. as the company states: ‘in april we achieved a world first when the full size prototype successfully performed its most complicated manoeuvre – transitioning between hover mode and horizontal flight’. 

 

 


video via lilium

 

 

the funding group consists of tencent; LGT, the international private banking and asset management group; atomico, our series a backer founded by skype co-founder niklas zennström; and obvious ventures, whose co-founder ev williams is twitter’s co-founder and former CEO. the investment brings our total capital raised to more than $100 million. freigeist (formerly e42) were our seed investors’, continues lilium. 

 

according to the founders, the jet would be equipped with a motor system that allows it to fly up to 300 km/h during the span of one hour — on one single charge. in other words, the project is focusing on being both economic and efficient for users — offering flights that would be much less costly for the same commute taken in a regular taxi service.