Sumitomo Corporation has announced an investment in Series E Funding round in Volocopter, thus becoming the latest Japanese investor and strategic partner in the company to join its list of partners.
Christian Bauer, chief commercial officer of Volocopter, said: “Committing to fly and enter a market is no small feat, but for Volocopter and Japan, who are both pioneers in the UAM space, it just makes sense. Over the past few years, Volocopter has made significant progress toward becoming an integral part of the team that will bring UAM to life in Japan in 2025, thanks to partners like Sumitomo, EASA, and JCAB who share our vision. I cannot wait to see the public reaction to the VoloCity air taxi being unveiled in Osaka for the first time.”
The company feels that this move will diversifies Volocopter’s global partnerships to establish a UAM ecosystem.
Meanwhile, two regulators, the European Union Aviation Safety Authority (EASA) and the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB) has accepted Volocopter’s application for concurrent type certification (TC) of the VoloCity aircraft in Japan.
Volocopter is currently pushing the envelope on flight testing and is on target to achieve certification for the VoloCity from EASA in 2024. As of now, the company is pursuing concurrent validation with three non-European civil aviation authorities: JCAB in Japan, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the United States, and the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) in Singapore.
“This is an important milestone in the development of relations between Japan and Europe in the field of new aviation technologies,” said Patrick Ky, Executive Director of EASA. “EASA is proud partnering with Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) and support the development of the UAM industry in Japan and share with JCAB its experience with its SC-VTOL regulations in the certification process of VoloCity.”