Lilium IPO brings in less money than hoped for

The air cab start-up will probably raise around 300 million US dollars less than planned. However, this is not unusual for IPOs via Spac.

The Munich-based air cab company Lilium is expecting less new capital from its planned IPO than it had hoped. As the Handelsblatt reports, the start-up will probably only receive 584 million US dollars instead of the targeted 830 million US dollars. This corresponds to a valuation of around three billion US dollars for the entire company.

Lilium is planning to launch on the US technology exchange Nasdaq in the coming days. To this end, the company is merging with Spac Quell, which was founded by former General Motors manager Barry Engle. The problem: the majority of Quell investors preferred to return their shares in Spac rather than exchange them for Lilium shares. This also explains the lower capital injection. However, this is not unusual for Spacs: 70 to 90 percent of investors currently exit once the takeover candidate has been determined, Lilium is even lower with a rate of 65 percent.

However, according to CEO Daniel Wiegand, this should not be a setback for the company. The commercial launch is still planned for 2024. Some of Lilium's competitors have also already dared to go public via Spac or are planning to do so. Joby is already listed in the USA and Archer intends to follow suit. Volocopter is also considering a move in this direction.