Lilium Aerospace emerges as MUC prepares to acquire assets
With Lilium apparently brought back from the brink of dissolution through $200 million of investment, newly-formed investment consortium Mobile Uplift Corporation (MUC) has rebranded as ‘Lilium Aerospace’ – with the transfer of asset ownership expected by the end of this month.
“Efforts to rescue Lilium from insolvency are in full swing,” a spokesperson from the former MUC confirmed to Aerospace Global News, days after the moniker ‘Lilium Aerospace’ was formally registered at the District Court of München. The newly-named company’s headquarters have also been moved to Lilium’s former headquarters of Gauting, Bavaria.
With the investor consortium “working intensively to ensure that operations can be resumed as soon as possible” and that “the delay in bringing the Lilium jet to market caused by the insolvency is kept to a minimum,” the first Lilium employees have already been recalled and are back at work.
With bankrupt Lilium’s subsidiaries having filed for insolvency proceedings on 6 November 2024 after a state-backed loan guarantee fell through, Mobile Uplift Corporation signed an investment agreement for the capital increase of “more than €200 million” on 30 December; stating its intention to “resume Lilium’s business operations and lead the eAviation pioneer to market maturity and economic success”.
With the creditors’ committees for Lilium and Lilium eAircraft now appointed and having given their consent, the transfer of possession of the operating assets and operations of the subsidiaries occurred on 7 January. Building on a purchase agreement signed with MUC on 23 December, the transfer of ownership of the subsidiaries’ assets is expected to occur at the end of January 2025 (admittedly later than a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing, dated 8 January, which indicated this would be wrapped up by 20 January). However, despite the delay, it seems Lilium may soon be back in business.
German consultant and project manager Severin Tatarczyk has now been appointed as managing director of Lilium Aerospace “for the duration of the transaction”. Although he does not appear to have a direct aerospace background, his LinkedIn offers the quote: “What concerns me most at the moment is how AI can help people complete tasks in everyday life”.
“The well-known German start-up investors Jan Beckers, Christian Reber and Frank Thelen also believe in Lilium’s future and are on board,” concluded Lilium Aerospace. BIT Capital – of which Jan Beckers is founder and CIO of – previously invested in Lilium in 2023 and 2024. Learning of MUC’s financial restructuring agreement with Lilium, Christian Reber, founding partner of Interface Capital, also wrote on LinkedIn: “Christmas came early… I will reinvest if I get a chance!”.
Finally, Frank Thelen, partner at venture capital fund Freigeist, wrote in a 2017 blog post that although he had initially emailed Lilium’s founders explaining that “the heart says yes – but the mind says no,” he ultimately “offered to join their bold mission”. At the time, he added that although “it’s often challenging to take on the technology or product risk of seed stage companies,” he was ultimately impressed with the “smart concepts” and the speed at which the team developed and delivered a flying, half-scale prototype.
Although their optimism will doubtless draw speculation from those who believe the Lilium jet may be too ambitious a project to bring to commercial maturity given current battery density limitations, Mobile Uplift Corporation has previously stressed that “the loss of a company like Lilium would be fatal for Germany and Europe,” reiterating its conviction that the product will ultimately fulfil a range of “comprehensive air transport tasks” for a number of “potential major customers”.
