Lilium IPO raises less money than hoped for

Around 300 million US dollars less than planned, the flight taxi start-up will probably raise. However, this is not unusual for IPOs via Spac.

Munich-based air taxi company Lilium is facing less new capital from its planned IPO than it had hoped. As the Handelsblatt reports, the start-up is likely to receive only $584 million instead of the targeted $830 million. That equates to a valuation of around three billion US dollars for the entire company.

Lilium plans to launch on the US technology exchange Nasdaq in the coming days. To do so, the company is merging with Spac Quell, which was founded by former General Motors manager Barry Engle. The problem: A large part of Quell's investors preferred to give back their shares in Spac rather than exchange them for Lilium shares. This explains the lower capital injection. However, this is not unusual for Spacs: 70 to 90 percent of the investors currently get out when the takeover candidate is fixed, Lilium is even lower with a rate of 65 percent.

But according to CEO Daniel Wiegand, this should not be a step backwards for the company. Commercial launch is still planned for 2024. Some of Lilium's competitors have also already taken the plunge via Spac to go public or are planning to do so. Joby is already listed in the USA, Archer wants to follow suit. Volocopter is also thinking along these lines.