Vertical Aerospace’s founder and CEO, Stephen Fitzpatrick, is making a further $50 million investment in the UK start-up to sustain its work on the VX4 four-passenger eVTOL aircraft. Announcing the move on Monday, the New York Stock Exchange-listed company said the capital will be provided in a first tranche of $25 million for shares priced at $10 that is set to close by March, and then in a second payment of $25 million at a share price to be determined by July 31.
According to Vertical, the fresh funding will provide sufficient cash to support the program into the second quarter of 2025. The company said it is in discussions with other prospective sources of capital as it prepares to start flight testing a second VX4 prototype in the next few months.
In December, the New York Stock Exchange warned Vertical that it would face removal from the exchange unless its shares traded above $1 over 30 days in the following six months. In trading on Tuesday, the stock closed at 67 cents, which represented an improvement on the January 19 closing price of 59 cents.
Assembly of the second prototype is said to be near completion at GKN Aerospace’s Global Technology Centre in the UK. This facility is close to Vertical’s headquarters in Bristol, and flight testing will likely be conducted at the nearby Cotswold Airport, where the first prototype aircraft was badly damaged during a flight test last year.
VX4 eVTOL Is Being Lined Up for Public Debut at Farnborough International Airshow
Vertical said it intends to conduct a public flight demonstration with the next VX4 prototype at the Farnborough International Airshow in July. It also intends to conduct demonstration flights in and out of London Heathrow Airport.
Vertical will use data from the flight test program to refine the design for the all-electric aircraft, which it says is on track to receive UK and EASA type certification at the end of 2026. The second prototype includes more systems and technology provided directly by key partners, including Honeywell Aerospace, Leonardo, Hanwha, GKN, and Molicel.
Unaudited results for 2023 show that Vertical used just $95 million in net cash for operations. The company is taking an asset-light, low-capital approach to bring its eVTOL vehicle to market by comparison with better-funded U.S. rivals like Joby and Archer.
“Since founding Vertical in 2016, I have continued to believe in the enormous potential the company has to pioneer zero carbon aviation,” said Fitzpatrick, who is the CEO of Ovo Energy. “The company has achieved significant technical progress both in its prototype program and its certification plans in 2023 that I believe is not reflected in our share price. Given the success I have seen in the past 12 months, I am more confident than ever in our world-class team, and I am delighted to further support the company with additional funding.”
According to Vertical, it holds provisional preorders from more than 12 customers worldwide for 1,500 of the VX4 aircraft, which it says are worth over $5 billion. Last year, it received its design organization approval from the UK Civil Aviation Authority and opened the Vertical Energy Centre where it will complete the assembly of its battery-electric powertrain with cells produced by Molicel.
