Shanghai-based electric vertical take-off and landing startup, AutoFlight raises $100 million in Series A funding from Lukasz Gadowski, a European technology investor, and his company Team Global, who joins the company’s board of directors. AutoFlight will use the raised capital for international expansion and in scaling cargo eVTOL production for customers.
AutoFlight is specialized in developing and manufacturing autonomous aerial vehicles. The company was founded in 2017 by Tian Yu, who also founded a consumer drone company named Yuneec. AutoFlight is one of the early Chinese tech companies to develop autonomous eVTOL. This also includes large-payload logistic and autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
AutoFlight is currently working on developing the best technology configuration and business model suited for its users. Its eVTOLs are designed to be safe, clean, quiet, affordable, and comfortable. The design is based on lift-and-cruise configuration. It has a manufacturing capacity of 66,000 square meters in Dinfeng. It allows the company to manufacture the eVTOLs in the most profitable unit as compared to other competitors. With the recent completion of its V1500M’s maiden flight, the company is moving forward with additional flight tests and plans to go into mass production and have the vehicle certified to fly by the year 2024.
“AutoFlight is pleased to welcome Lukasz Gadowski as the newest member of our board,” said Tian Yu, founder, chairman and CEO of AutoFlight. “His knowledge and experience will help us to expand our R&D endeavors and to grow our operations globally. We are determined to unlock the skies for mass individual transport through the air. Just in the past month, our autonomous passenger eVTOL aircraft, the V1500M, successfully accomplished its maiden flight. We continue to push hard in accelerating our testing and certification work.”
“We are very proud and excited to partner with such an amazing company as AutoFlight, its fantastic team, and its founder, Tian Yu,” said Gadowski. “I admire Tian. He is an extraordinary entrepreneur in Asia and the U.S.A. and has exceptional experience as both a fixed-wing and helicopter pilot as well as in supply chain management. He has a unique way of combining vision, execution, and heart. The world doesn’t need to build more roads; it needs to preserve resources and nature. Autonomous air mobility is an emerging industry ready to grow, and I am convinced that AutoFlight will be one of its big players.”
“TDK Ventures was an early believer in Tian and AutoFlight,” said TDK Ventures President Nicolas Sauvage. “Entrepreneurs like him are heroes to us. Our goal in working with AutoFlight is to help them ramp up their dreams of a future that is sustainable and attractive for all.” “His and AutoFlight’s achievements in just a year’s time are nothing short of amazing. We are honored to be contributing to this trailblazing journey.”
