Cash-pinched Lilium to raise $250M for air taxi certification push

Just a month after reports circulated about its increasingly tight financial situation, German air taxi developer Lilium says it has secured $100 million in what it expects will be $250 million in new funding.

Lilium released a communiqué Tuesday announcing a “capital raise for up to $250 million, with $100 million funded at close” of the trading day. That up-front amount was supplied by Singapore-based Aceville, an affiliate of China’s Tencent Holdings that already owns 23.4% of Lilium. The Munich-based air taxi maker says the influx is expected to “cover most of the estimated capital required to achieve (its) first manned flight of the type-conforming aircraft,” and on through certification.

Read: Air taxi maker Lilium faces funding pinch in crowded AAM sector 

News of the new funding is good news for Lilium, which ended March with only about $175 million in cash and financial assets. At that time, the air taxi company’s…