Electric Air Taxi Startup Lilium Snatches Top CFO From Uniper

May 7, 20195 years ago Nicolas Zart 0 Comments

Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!

Our urban air mobility (UAM) future is developing steadily as technology and key figures find their place at the right companies. Co-founded in 2015 by four visionary founders, Daniel Wiegand (CEO), Sebastian Born, Matthias Meiner, and Patrick Nathen, Lilium has been a key early electric air mobility player. In order to pursue its lead, it is bringing onboard Christopher Delbrück as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO) later this year. He currently serves as Chief Financial Officer at Uniper SE.

Christopher played an instrumental role in his previous companies and spent 14 years executing various strategy, business development, and financial targets. With Lilium, he plans to get the company to manufacture and operate the Lilium Jet.

According to Daniel Wiegand, Lilium co-founder and CEO, the press release says: “We are thrilled that a financial heavyweight of Christopher’s caliber is joining Lilium. Not only is he a world-class CFO with experience of managing very large businesses, but he combines this wealth of experience with a deep-rooted entrepreneurial spirit that makes him a perfect match for Lilium.”

Delbrück himself notes: “Opportunities to revolutionize an industry only come by once in every generation and I’m thrilled to be joining Lilium at this point in their journey.

“The urban air mobility market will see tremendous growth over the next decade and I believe Lilium has both the team and the technology to capitalise on this growth and become one of the world’s leading technology companies.

“By taking their highly-innovative technology and scaling the business that supports it, we can help make travel better for people across the world, while making genuine progress towards a more sustainable future.”

Lilium Aims To Launch Electric Air Taxis

Lilium has focused on developing its on-demand air taxi service, which will work at the push of a button where any passenger can locate the nearest landing pad to their location and fly with ease. Using a network of pads across cities and regions, Lilium says prices will be comparable to that of taxis, but will transport passengers 4× faster.

With catastrophic climate change going the way it is, and a remarkable portion of the population in denial, zero-emissions Lilium eVTOL jets couldn’t come soon enough. They are powered by 36 electric motors, with a range of up to 300 kilometers (186 miles), and can go that distance in 1 hour on a full charge. Lilium expects to be operational around the world by 2025, and trial initiatives will take place earlier in several places.

Financially, Lilium is doing well. It has secured a $90 million Series B fundraising round, bringing their total capital to over $100 million.

Lilium has a prototype aircraft. The electric 5-seater will step into a trillion-dollar market that will potentially change our mobility patterns and how we connect to other communities, especially if it can make trips in 4× the time.