A consortium of investors has revived Lilium just days after the electric air taxi startup went out of business and laid off about 1,000 employees.
Mobile Uplift Corporation, a company founded by investors from Europe and North America, has agreed to buy the operating assets of the startup's two subsidiaries, Lilium GmbH and Lilium eAircraft GmbH, according to an announcement on Tuesday.
The parent company, Lilium NV, will not receive any funds in accordance with German bankruptcy law.
Terms of the deal, which is expected to close in January, were not disclosed. Consulting giant KPMG handled the sale process for Lilium. Mobile Uplift Corporation said in the announcement that it intends to re-employ workers who were laid off immediately after the opening of proceedings and the closing of the transaction. It is not clear whether all 1,000 workers will be rehired.
When reached for comment by TechCrunch, Lilium spokeswoman Christine Pierk did not provide any new information or respond to TechCrunch's questions about the deal.
Once the deal closes, the new owners plan to restructure Lilium, allowing the company to emerge from bankruptcy with its technology intact and debt-free.
“We are very pleased to announce the signing of an investment agreement with a consortium of highly experienced investors, which is a major breakthrough,” Lilium CEO Klaus Roewe was quoted as saying in the announcement. “Closing the deal in early January will allow us to resume our business.”
Lilium had raised more than $1 billion from private investors before going public in 2021 on the Nasdaq stock exchange through a reverse merger with a bare-bones SPAC Qell.
Lilium was successful in landing customers, including an order from Saudi Arabia for 100 electric jets. 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 capable of speeds of up to 100 km/h.
Lilium filed for bankruptcy – the US equivalent of bankruptcy – in October after failing to secure emergency funding.
