Australian vertiport fundraise hits minimum in less than 30 minutes
credit: Contreras Earl Architecture
Skyportz latest fundraise, which closes this Thursday, hit its $100k minimum in just 29 minutes after opening.
Currently sat at over $450,000, the capital will be used to continue preparatory works in Australia for the arrival of electric aircraft services. Melbourne based airport construction specialist, Maz Group, has emerged as the lead investor.
“It is fantastic to have a lead investment from a property company like the Maz Group which has so much practical experience in airport construction,” Clem Newton-Brown, Skyportz CEO, tells us. “We will be working closely with them in the development of our vertiport designs and in their eventual roll out.”
Maz Group has projects including Melbourne Airport and Launceston Airport and will be collaborating with Skyportz in vertiport design and construction.
MD, Marty Craggill said: “Maz Group has extensive experience in all aspects of airport building – from hangars to terminals to baggage handling this is our area of expertise. We are looking forward to working with Skyportz to develop an entirely new class of building – the vertiport terminal for the emerging electric air taxi industry”
The emerging industry looks set to launch in the United Arab Emirates with two leading electric air taxi manufacturers, Archer and Joby, set to commence operations in 2025.
With these recent announcements in the Middle East both companies have found significant investment flowing into the supporting vertiport infrastructure to support operations. Joby’s partner, Skyports has secured a $110m investment from ACS Group through its subsidiary, Iridium and Archer secured a “multi hundred million dollar investment” from the Abu Dhabi Investment Office to support operational infrastructure.
“We congratulate Skyports, Archer and Joby for the large investment they have attracted in the UAE,” says Newton-Brown. “While this has no direct impact on Skyportz Australia it is encouraging and a validation that this sort of investment will follow the launch of the aircraft.
“Every OEM air taxi pitch deck I have seen has talked about aviation on demand to locations people want to go to. The reality is that this is not possible without new vertiport approvals and massive additional investment. Sure, they can start at airports and helipads and that will be an evolution from helicopters, but it will take the vertiport infrastructure to turn the evolution into a revolution.”
According to Newton-Brown, in Australia it is too soon to be seeking major investment for vertiport construction as stakeholders are still in the preparatory phase.
“The capital will go into our core activities of securing property site options, regulatory reform, advocacy, community engagement, vertiport product development and software systems. This is why we have chosen to use a platform [Birchal] that enables retail investors to own a part of our company before the big investment comes in for construction further down the track.”
