Volocopter raised €2B to build a flying taxi — then laid off everyone on Christmas

Volocopter was founded in Germany in 2011, originally as e-volo GmbH, to build an electric air taxi for urban routes. Over thirteen years it raised roughly €2 billion from investors including Mercedes-Benz, Geely and Intel, and became one of the most heavily funded eVTOL startups in the world. It flew demonstration aircraft at events and promised commercial operations within years.

The certification never arrived. Like its German rival Lilium, Volocopter could not close the gap between a demo flight and a type certificate from EASA. The company burned through its capital while the regulatory timeline stretched further than any funding round could cover. In late 2024, after intensive fundraising failed to secure new investment, Volocopter filed for insolvency at the Karlsruhe Local Court on 26 December.

CEO Dirk Hoke confirmed the filing on 30 December. The company laid off its entire workforce and began seeking rescue investors. Two German eVTOL pioneers — Lilium and Volocopter, together raising over €3 billion — had both failed for the same reason: the physics of electric flight and the timeline of aerospace certification do not accommodate venture-capital return expectations.