BETA Technologies secures $375 million in latest Series B Funding Round

BETA Tech­nolo­gies has raised $375 mil­lion in an over­sub­scribed Series B financ­ing round, led by TPG Rise Cli­mate and Fideli­ty Man­age­ment & Research Com­pa­ny.

This fund­ing will sup­port the advance­ment of BETA’s inte­grat­ed elec­tric avi­a­tion sys­tem, includ­ing its zero emis­sions air­craft, elec­tric propul­sion sys­tems and its nation­wide mul­ti­modal charg­ing infra­struc­ture.

ALIA-250, BETA’s eVTOL air­craft, was designed ini­tial­ly for trans­port­ing med­ical prod­ucts and car­go by car­ry­ing a 1400 pound pay­load, and can be con­fig­ured for up to five peo­ple plus a pilot. It requires less than an hour to charge, enabling point-to-point logis­tics, and cre­at­ing greater con­nec­tions between com­mu­ni­ties.

The com­pa­ny will install more than 65 charg­ing loca­tions in a net­work extend­ing from Burling­ton, Ver­mont, to Mel­bourne, Flori­da, and Ben­tonville, Ari­zona, and includes on- and off-air­port sta­tions. 

“Zero emis­sions avi­a­tion is a crit­i­cal part of turn­ing the cor­ner on cli­mate change, and we are thrilled that our investors see our elec­tric avi­a­tion sys­tem as a mean­ing­ful step towards this ambi­tious goal,” said Kyle Clark, BETA’s Founder and CEO. 

“This sup­port allows us to com­plete the con­struc­tion of our pro­duc­tion facil­i­ties and accel­er­ate our cer­ti­fi­ca­tion work to cre­ate a green­er and more effi­cient future for all appli­ca­tions of avi­a­tion, start­ing with car­go and logis­tics and mov­ing to pas­sen­ger mis­sions imme­di­ate­ly there­after.” 

Jonathan Garfinkel, Part­ner at TPG and senior mem­ber of the TPG Rise Cli­mate invest­ment team, added: “Decar­bon­is­ing trans­porta­tion is one of the key focus areas for TPG Rise Cli­mate, and we see BETA as a clear leader in the rapid­ly grow­ing eVTOL space. 

“BETA’s design is high­ly prac­ti­cal for short and medi­um move­ment of car­go, cre­at­ing sig­nif­i­cant effi­cien­cies for logis­tics providers while avoid­ing emis­sions from exist­ing region­al air­craft and ground trans­porta­tion.” 

“Led by a tal­ent­ed man­age­ment team, we believe BETA is unique­ly posi­tioned to nav­i­gate the tech­no­log­i­cal and reg­u­la­to­ry envi­ron­ment and dri­ve long-term growth and inno­va­tion in the avi­a­tion sec­tor.”

In March, two USAF pilots flew ALIA in a han­dling qual­i­ties eval­u­a­tion test, mark­ing the first-ever manned flight of an elec­tric air­craft through the AFWERX Agili­ty Prime pro­gramme, when the pilots under­went exten­sive safe­ty and pre­pared­ness train­ing for the flight tests, and under­go­ing sim­u­la­tor train­ing to under­stand how to man­age unplanned events. 

BETA has assem­bled a team of research, engi­neer­ing, and test organ­i­sa­tions, as well as Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Admin­is­tra­tion (FAA) Des­ig­nat­ed Engi­neer­ing and Air­wor­thi­ness Rep­re­sen­ta­tives to build a team to ensure com­pli­ance with reg­u­la­tions. 

In April 2021, UPS placed an order for 10 air­craft with the option to order an addi­tion­al 140. BETA’s first cus­tomer, Unit­ed Ther­a­peu­tics, will trans­port man­u­fac­tured and repaired organs for human trans­plan­ta­tion, and will utilise its charg­ing sta­tions to sup­port those mis­sions. 

Blade Urban Air Mobil­i­ty also ordered five qui­et ALIA air­craft with an option for up to 20, with plans to use the air­craft for diverse mis­sions, includ­ing air­port trans­fers and longer dis­tance com­muter routes.