We first heard about the E-Volo Volocopter last month, and now the creators of this 18 rotor 2 person electric helicopter have announced that the device has received 1.2 million Euros in funding.
The company used German crowd funding website Seedmatch to raise the 1.2 million Euros, and unlike Kickstarter where you buy a product, the people who pledged the fund will actually be investors in the company.
Managing director Alexander Zosel: “Through this new financing possibility, 750 investors contributed between 250 and 10,000 euros. We would like to thank all investors for your trust and financial commitments!”
In the first step, 500,000 euros were raised through investors on the Internet at a European record time of only 2 hours and 35 minutes. The final result, a total of 1,200,000 euros in just 3 days, 9 hours, and 52 minutes, is an overwhelming success for e-volo. Never before has so much money been raised through crowdfunding in so little time in Germany.
The company announced that the money raised will be used to optimize the first prototype of the VC200 Volocopter, which will then be used in comprehensive testing.
The company then plans to build a final prototype and finalize production of this 18 rotor helicopter, there are no details as yet on exactly when it will go into production.
Source E-volo