Affordable and emission-free short-haul flights are still on the agenda for aviation industry start-ups, in spite the financing difficulties faced by air taxi developers. This is illustrated by Vaeridion, a Munich-based developer of battery-powered small aircraft, which has raised 14 million euros in a Series A financing round. The company was founded in 2021.

The deal was led by Berlin-based climate tech investor World Fund. In addition, the VC company Project A Ventures co-founded by Uwe Horstmann, Vsquared Ventures from Munich, and Finanzcheck founder, angel investor, and aviation engineer Andreas Kupke also participated. Kupke, as is the case with Vsquared, has already put money into the Munich-based rocket start-up Isar Aerospace.

Schwarz Holding (the family office of IABG Managing Director Rudolf Schwarz), and the Dutch economic development agency InnovationQuarter have also joined as new investors.

According to industry observers, the market for regional aviation is set to grow in the coming years, with governments – notably in the Scandinavian countries – increasingly demanding climate-friendly technology. In Sweden and Denmark, for example, fossil fuels will be banned on domestic flights from 2030, while in Norway, this will apply from 2040.

Vaeridion has high hopes for its „Microliner“, an all-electric small aircraft with nine seats and a range of up to 500 kilometres. The first test flights are due to take place in 2027, and the first commercial flights by 2030. According to the current schedule, the start-up also wants to have begun series production in or near Munich by then – around 100 units per year to begin with. Where demand is expected to be particularly high, for example, in Scandinavia, the company can also envisage setting up additional plants for final assembly, says co-founder and CEO Ivor van Dartel.

Born in the Netherlands, he sees several advantages to his small plane. „Our aircraft is a classic fixed-wing aircraft that can be operated from existing airfields,“ he explains. Unlike innovative concepts such as eVTOLs (i.e. helicopter-like aircraft that take off and land vertically), small fixed-wing aircraft such as Vaeridion's also have established regulatory procedures. „We were the first e-aerospace company ever to conclude a pre-application contract with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, whereby we have already clarified the most important certification issues in advance in a binding manner,“ says van Dartel. „In this respect, the issue of authorisation is not a major risk for us.“

Pricing is also a big plus point. „Thanks to the electric powertrain, the operating costs are so low that operators can offer domestic flights economically for as few as nine passengers," he says. They can also reactivate shorter connections that no longer exist today, for example, from Friedrichshafen to Stuttgart, from Mannheim to Nuremberg, or from Mönchengladbach to Kiel. In the past, operators would have had to fill much larger aircraft for such short routes to be profitable.

The low costs would also make electric flying competitive with first-class rail travel in the future, says van Dartel. „For operators to still have a nice profit margin from 2030, the airfare would have to be around 60 cents per kilometre. So if you want to fly 300 kilometres, for example, you end up with a ticket price of around 180 euros.“

Aeridion intends to charge around 5 million euros per aircraft. The service will initially be aimed at business travellers, though should subsequently become part of general travel. In cooperation with the ADAC subsidiary Aero-Dienst, which offers ambulance flights, among other things, Vaeridion is also investigating possible uses for patient transport.

In addition to Aero-Dienst, customers currently include the Danish airline Copenhagen Air Taxi, and the Belgian private jet operator ASL Group. Work is now underway to finalise the first binding purchase agreements, says van Dartel.

The Munich-based company, which competes in the development of small electric aircraft with US firms Eviation and Bye Aerospace, and Sweden's Heart Aerospace, among others, wants to earn money in future not only by building and delivering electric aircraft, but also with maintenance services. „We will build and deliver aircraft. We will also use service contracts to replace the battery modules in the fleet when they have reached the end of their service life,“ says van Dartel.

After being used in the aircraft, the modules will be utilised as second-life batteries, for example, in energy storage systems. They will then be recycled. The start-up obtains its battery cells from the northern German start-up Customcells, which raised around 60 million euros from Porsche and World Fund, among others, at the end of 2022.

In addition to the venture capital injection, Vaeridion has also received research funding totalling 1.4 million euros from Bavarian and German agencies. According to the company, the new funds will be used to fill further management positions in the team „and drive the company's commercial growth“.