Wingcopter to hire 80 new employees after raising $42M in funding

German delivery drone specialist Wingcopter has scored a cool $42 million in its latest funding round — an extension of its Series A. The fresh funds bring the company’s total equity raised to more than $60 million to date.

Wingcopter said the funding will be used to expand its drone delivery services globally, ramp up production, accelerate the firm’s R&D efforts, and hire 80 new employees.

Interestingly, a prominent new shareholder for the company is German retailer REWE Group, which has 12,000 stores across Europe. Its addition to Wingcopter’s investor base is a clear sign that the company is eyeing a future beyond medical drone delivery services.

To that end, Wingcopter is looking forward to ramping up production of its eVTOL delivery drone, the Wingcopter 198. Explaining that most production slots for the drone are already sold out for 2022 and 2023, Wingcopter said its manufacturing facility in Germany should start with partly automated…