A consortium of investors has resurrected Lilium just days after the electric air taxi startup ceased operations and laid off about 1,000 employees.
Mobile Uplift Corporation, a company set up by investors from Europe and North America, has agreed to acquire the operating assets of the startup’s two subsidiaries, Lilium GmbH and Lilium eAircraft GmbH, per an announcement Tuesday.
The parent company, Lilium N.V., will not receive any funds in accordance with German insolvency law.
Terms of the deal, which are expected to close in January, were not disclosed. Consultancy giant KPMG handled the sale process for Lilium. Mobile Uplift Corporation said in the announcement it intends to rehire workers who were laid off immediately after opening of the proceedings and closing of the transaction. It isn’t clear if all 1,000 workers will be rehired.
When reached for comment by TechCrunch, Lilium spokesperson Christine Pierk did not provide any new information or answer TechCrunch’s questions about the deal.
Once the deal closes, the new owners plan to restructure Lilium, allowing the company to exit insolvency with its tech intact and without debt.
“We are very pleased to announce the signing of an investment agreement with a very experienced consortium of investors, which is a major breakthrough,” Lilium CEO Klaus Roewe was quoted in the announcement. “Deal closing at the beginning of January will allow us to restart our business.”
Lilium had raised more than $1 billion from private investors before it went public in 2021 on the Nasdaq Exchange via a reverse merger with a blank-check company, SPAC Qell.
Lilium had success landing customers, including an order from Saudi Arabia for 100 electric planes. But the company burned through cash faster than it could raise more from investors as it worked to develop a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft with speeds of up to 100 km/h.
Lilium filed for insolvency — the U.S. equivalent of bankruptcy — in October, after failing to secure emergency funding.
