€200 million mission to resume Lilium operations
January 7, 2025
On 30 December, MUC Mobile Uplift Corporation – a recently-established investment consortium – signed an investment agreement for the capital increase of “more than 200 million euros,” with which it states it will “resume Lilium’s business operations and lead the eAviation pioneer to market maturity and economic success”. However, although having secured the participation of “renowned international investors,” the deal – described by Mobile Uplift Corporation as one that “can already be considered a great success” – still needs to be authorised by Lilium’s creditors’ committees.
After failing to secure up to $100 million in state-backed loan guarantees last year, Lilium filed for self-administrated insolvency proceedings for its subsidiaries Lilium and Lilium eAircraft at the end of October 2024; confirming that, “in accordance with German law,” it had terminated the contract of its remaining employees. However, on 24 December, Lilium revealed that Mobile Uplift Consortium would be stepping in with the offer of “sufficient funding to restart [Lilium’s subsidiaries’] business operations”.
Venture capital and investment specialists Earlybird and GenCap – both based in Germany – co-ordinated the MUC as a “fallback solution”, with Mobile Uplift Corporation stating the “rescue of Lilium is of central importance in order to strengthen Bavaria and Germany as an aviation location as well as future technologies and to create high-quality jobs”. In contrast to the German government’s prior rejection of Lilium’s €50 million government-backed lifeline, “the loss of a company like Lilium would be fatal for Germany and Europe,” stressed the Mobile Uplift Corporation.
Some of Lilium’s existing shareholders and creditors have already expressed an interest in participating in MUC, alongside Lilium partner and supplier CustomCells.
In an apparent deviation from the ‘air taxi’ use case (“as it is often mistakenly referred to,” write MUC), “comprehensive air transport tasks” ranging from regular flight connections to critical emergency medical services (EMS) missions have also been proposed. Additionally, MUC has “entered into talks with potential major customers,” including with “respected partners from the Gulf States”.
Recognising that “Volocopter’s insolvency filing also shows how difficult it is for Germany to finance such sustainable deep tech investments,” Mobile Investment Corporation concluded that “all those involved have been very involved in making the seemingly impossible possible after all and continuing operations at Lilium”. The closing of the capital round, the closing of the transaction and the restructuring of the company is expected to occur in the first quarter of 2025.
