Flying Taxis Take Off With Vertical Aerospace, Eve Urban SPAC IPOs

Flying taxi startups Vertical Aerospace and Eve Urban Air Mobility Solutions are separately planning initial public offerings (IPOs) via mergers with special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs).

U.K.-headquartered Vertical Aerospace is intending to go public with SPAC Broadstone Acquisition Corp., while Brazil’s Embraer subsidiary Eve Urban is planning to do the same via a merger with SPAC Zanite Acquisition Corp, according to press releases by both companies.

Engineering and aeronautical firm Vertical Aerospace — developer of electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) — is shooting for an estimated $2.2 billion valuation and is planning for a listing on the New York Stock Exchange before this year closes.

“This is the most exciting time in aviation for almost a century; electrification will transform flying in the 21st century in the same way the jet engine did 70 years ago,” Stephen Fitzpatrick, founder and CEO of Vertical, said in a press release.

He added that the U.K. is among the world’s leaders in aerospace innovation and the company thinks it “will be the British engineering champion to drive the aviation industry forward.”

Brazil’s Eve Urban SPAC deal with Ohio-based Zanite could value the combined entity at about $2 billion. The SPAC raised $230 million in a November IPO, according to a press release.

Air taxi development and manufacturing company Volocopter Chief Commercial Officer Christian Bauer told PYMNTS in April that the company is developing the world’s first sustainable and scalable urban air mobility business. The intention is to make air taxi services available to tourists and business travelers in megacities like Paris, Tokyo and Singapore.

The race for flying taxi dominance is also being sought by numerous companies, including Boeing and Uber.

“In one year, we have progressed from a conceptual design to a flying prototype,” Boeing Chief Technology Officer Greg Hyslop said in a statement earlier this year.