Archer Aviation received a $215 million equity investment from Stellantis, Boeing and United Airlines along with the other financial institutions, including ARK Invest increasing the company’s total funding to over $1.1 billion to date.
This investment round includes an acceleration of $70 million from Stellantis under the strategic funding agreement entered into in January 2023, with $55 million remaining available under that facility. The commitment from Stellantis has been unrivaled, from its foresight to provide the manufacturing expertise and capital needed to accelerate Archer’s business objectives, to the strategic vision and steadfast support from chief executive Carlos Tavares and chief engineering and technology officer Ned Curic.
Archer plans to use the funds from this round for working capital and general corporate purposes, including Archer’s continued development of its aircraft and related technology, as well as the building its manufacturing and test facilities.
On another positive note, Archer also received Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) approval to begin flying its Midnight eVTOL. Based on the approval Archer claims that it is on track to deliver the Midnight aircraft to the US Air Force later this year or early next year marking Midnight as the first ever eVTOL aircraft delivered to a customer.
“Over the last quarter, we’ve seen the US government make an unwavering commitment that America will lead the way in commercializing eVTOL aircraft, the FAA validated the timeline for eVTOL aircraft to begin operations in the U.S. in 2025, and leaders in the mobility industry, Stellantis, United Airlines and Boeing, have come together to invest in Archer’s future,” said Adam Goldstein, founder and chief executive. “The pace at which our industry is advancing is unprecedented. Our team’s hard work and dedication have brought us to this exciting moment, and we can't wait to see Midnight soar,” added Goldstein.
Going ahead, Archer and Wisk have reached a settlement to resolve the federal and state court litigation between them and will collaborate together for the growth and development of advanced air mobility industry. With this settlement Archer will be able to source autonomy technology from Wisk.
This approach is a natural extension of Archer’s overall strategy of focusing its in-house research and development on the key enabling technologies that cannot be sourced from the existing aerospace supply base, thereby helping Archer potentially avoid hundreds of millions of dollars of spending.