The company behind the Lilium Jet has filed for insolvency after its funding options dried up and promises of new financing failed to materialize.
Lilium Aerospace, which evolved after Lilium GmbH and Lilium eAircraft GmbH filed for insolvency at the end of last year, confirmed on February 21, 2025, that operations had stopped.
“As the funding options to secure Lilium’s future have not materialized in time, Lilium Aerospace has filed for insolvency today”, a spokesperson for Lilium said.
While the electric vehicle takeoff and landing (eVTOL) developer will continue to seek alternative funding sources the company did not hold out much hope.
“While talks about alternative solutions are still ongoing, the chance for restructuring right now is highly unlikely and therefore operations will be stopped,” the spokesperson explained.
After Lilium GmbH and Lilium eAircraft GmbH entered insolvency, hope emerged just before Christmas that a new consortium of investors had been found.
Under the terms of an agreement, the consortium – Mobile Uplift Corporation – would acquire the assets of Lilium, giving the startup the funding it needs to resume operations.
It was reported that €200 million in new funds would be invested in the company, but it appears that the financial lifeline fell away.
“Giving the situation, this is deeply regretful for all employees and Lilium Aerospace thanks them for their resilience and dedication,” the Lilium spokesperson added.
In a social media post, Lilium co-founder Dr. Patrick Nathan said the situation was “heartbreaking”.
“On a pure personal note, reflecting on the past events, I want to share one new key learning with my fellow founders: Never give away control of your own start-up. Never,” Nathan wrote.
Following the Lilium Jet’s planned first flight in early 2025, the developer anticipated receiving pre-delivery payments and new investment to finance the company into 2026.
The company then expected that delivery would begin on its current order pipeline, consisting of firm orders, reservations, options and memorandums of understanding for more than 780 aircraft.
9 comments
Elon could have financed out of pocket change. This is the most innovative concept of all of the competitors. I fail to
believe that this piece of technology is gone forever.
From an aesthetics view, Lilium is ahead of their competitors in the U.S.
From an aesthetics view, yes. From a physics one no.
Other eVTOLs are not faring better either (with very few exceptions). but Lilium was amongst the most unfeasible concepts out there. You cannot defy physics with a cool appearance.
I find it hard to believe an investor couldn’t be found for such a ground breaking company with a great product! Did the founders approach Airbus or any of the big aerospace companies?
If You guys think it was ahead of anything and was “amazing” and “so cool” – you must be not from the industry and very naive. Nobody, absolutely nobody wanted to spend a penny for that thing … to many red lights.
Good investors are pragmatic, all the rest is just naive with missing competency and a bit of luck.
From the inside feedback’s it was clear that the all ingredients were there to achieve the concept and design, however it is on the global program strategy and senior leadership team have massively failed. It has been a casting error as those big guys coming in from big aerospace companies. They came in with the idea that making it as it is from their past experience is the answer and killed everything around or lost control of the boat. And if you only look at the KPIs the one only that never achieve any single target are those top guys and the complete not realistic schedule associated, specially the last 3 years. It is sad that such lot of talents have been miss-used and sad that the vision of the co-founders was replaced by avidity of few not competent top managers that looked only to satisfy there ego and to fill their own pockets, playing political games and never have made it for the company, the trust in the project or the passion as all others the people behind did. If all this layer of people is replaced and that would now accept to listen to the experienced people in the project this bird could reborn, and Europe could achieve something in between Space X and Tesla, making something never done before … doesn’t this could be so great ….
We have to ask ourselves this most fundamental question: Why is it that “every” electric powered aircraft project, has failed financially, despite receiving, tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars? How, does that make any sense?
Therefore, we must conclude one important and essential point: That money has nothing to do with ensuring a successful project!
Just Lillium burned over a billion EUR. Without any working product in over a decade. This is a shame not only for the founders, but also for the investors, the German industry and the German engineering as a whole.
Years ago I have seen very well written explanations why from fundamental aerodynamics point of view this was never going to work. And as electrical engineer myself I asked questions what is the core tech Lillium plans to use to compete – even in product was made. Because Europe is severely lagging in batteries and electrical motors. China could make a better version of anything Lillium could make and take over the broader market if something was proven working.
Nobody cared to discuss these questions anywhere.
Basically it was a pork barrel waste project by the German federal and provincial government. Money thrown in the air.
It’s really disappointing to see Lilium facing insolvency after all the hype around eVTOL technology. I had high hopes for their advancements in sustainable aviation. Hopefully, they can find a way to bounce back or at least contribute to the industry’s future in some capacity.