Wingcopter Secures $42M in Latest Funding Round

by DRONELIFE Staff Writer Ian M Crosby

This week, drone delivery company Wingcopter announced its acquisition of $42 million in funding from a Series A extension round, tripling the company’s total equity raise to over $60 million.

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The round saw participation from new shareholders such as German retailer REWE Group, and German investors Salvia and XAI technologies, as well as Japanese conglomerate ITOCHU and previous backers Futury Capital from Germany and Silicon Valley-based Xplorer Capital.

The new funding will enable Wingcopter to expand its drone delivery services, as well as increase production of its Wingcopter 198 eVTOL delivery drone, which recently met the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Airworthiness Criteria and has been experiencing a growing demand. Wingcopter also intends to leverage the funding to advance the firm’s R&D efforts to develop new product features and to hire 80 new employees across all departments in the coming months.

“At Wingcopter, we create efficient and sustainable drone solutions to save and improve lives. For this, we are hiring passionate pioneers with whom we build what has not existed before,” said Co-founder and CEO Tom Plümmer. “The new funding, combined with growing revenues, puts us in an excellent position to establish our industry-leading drone delivery solution with our customers around the globe to optimize supply chains.”

“REWE Group is one of the most innovative companies in German retail,” said Christoph Eltze, Executive Board member Digital, Customer & Analytics and IT at REWE Group. “For years, we have relied on strong partnerships with innovation leaders, especially in emerging trends. With Wingcopter, we have found such a new partner.”

“With its disruptive technology and highly motivated team, Wingcopter has the potential to become a frontrunner in the drone delivery space,” added Helmut Jeggle, Founder & Managing Partner of Salvia. “In the face of global challenges such as climate change, innovative companies such as Wingcopter are needed to lead an industry like logistics into a sustainable, more efficient future. We are pleased to accompany this success story from now on as an investor and sparring partner.”

“We are excited to join the Wingcopter team on their way to the next growth milestones as a leader in drone delivery logistics,” said Enis Ersü, Managing Owner of XAI technologies and former CEO of ISRA VISION. “Being an investor and a technology partner at the same time our team at XAI technologies is very much looking forward to generating further business potential by integrating advanced key technologies and operational excellence together with the management.”

Wingcopter recently partnered with Continental Drones in order to deploy 12,000 Wingcopter throughout sub-Saharan Africa over the next few years for the delivery of essential goods.

Additionally, in Malawi, where Wingcopter has been active since 2019, the company will expand its network operations with additional Wingcopter 198 drones and hubs for the transport of medical supplies to remote health centers.

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Ian attended Dominican University of California, where he received a BA in English in 2019. With a lifelong passion for writing and storytelling and a keen interest in technology, he is now contributing to DroneLife as a staff writer.