Beta Technologies closes $368 million funding round to accelerate development of ALIA eVTOL aircraft

Beta Tech­nolo­gies has secured $368 mil­lion through a Series A pri­vate fund­ing round led by Fideli­ty Man­age­ment & Research Com­pa­ny, which will sup­port the con­tin­ued devel­op­ment of its ALIA eVTOL air­craft and con­struc­tion of new man­u­fac­tur­ing facil­i­ties.

Ama­zon’s Cli­mate Pledge Fund also joined this fund­ing round, as well as new and return­ing investors, and pro­ceeds will also be used to con­tin­ue the refine­ment of Beta’s elec­tric propul­sion sys­tems and con­trols. The com­pa­ny, which is now val­ued at just under $1.4 bil­lion, is push­ing on with plans to achieve cer­ti­fi­ca­tion from the Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Admin­is­tra­tion (FAA) by 2024 for ALIA, which can car­ry either 1,500 pounds of car­go or up to six peo­ple.

Kyle Clark, Beta’s Founder and CEO, said: “We’re grat­i­fied for the con­fi­dence this diverse group of investors has placed in our team as we con­tin­ue on our mis­sion to trans­form how peo­ple and goods move about the world. These funds allow us to con­tin­ue hir­ing the best tal­ent, meet aggres­sive cer­ti­fi­ca­tion mile­stones, ramp up pro­duc­tion of ALIA, and accel­er­ate the roll­out of an exten­sive high-speed uni­ver­sal charg­ing infra­struc­ture.”

Addi­tion­al­ly, the com­pa­ny has also ini­ti­at­ed the per­mit­ting process to expand its foot­print in Ver­mont, with a new facil­i­ty to be built on unused land at Burling­ton Inter­na­tion­al Air­port.

The project, which will include office space, research and devel­op­ment and man­u­fac­tur­ing space when com­plet­ed, is expect­ed to cre­ate hun­dreds of new jobs in the com­ing years — with roles in con­struc­tion, engi­neer­ing, design, mechan­i­cal and man­u­fac­tur­ing.

Kara Hurst, Vice Pres­i­dent, and Head of World­wide Sus­tain­abil­i­ty at Ama­zon, said: “We sup­port Beta Tech­nolo­gies’ mis­sion to reshape air trans­porta­tion through zero-emis­sion avi­a­tion and are proud to invest in them through Ama­zon’s $2 bil­lion Cli­mate Pledge Fund. The devel­op­ment of sus­tain­able and decar­bon­is­ing tech­nolo­gies will help facil­i­tate the tran­si­tion to a low-car­bon econ­o­my and pro­tect the plan­et for future gen­er­a­tions.”

Beta’s ALIA be capa­ble of fly­ing 250 nau­ti­cal miles on a sin­gle charge, with the com­pa­ny say­ing it is also ten times qui­eter than a heli­copter. In March, it advanced to the next phase of flight test­ing, com­plet­ing an inter­state flight with ALIA from its Platts­burgh, NY home air­port test facil­i­ty to the com­pa­ny’s head­quar­ters on the grounds of Burling­ton Inter­na­tion­al Air­port.. In the same week, ALIA flew its first inter­state flight and set a new BETA record for endurance, range, and alti­tude.

And last month, ALIA received the first-ever air­wor­thi­ness approval from the U.S. Air Force for a manned eVTOL flight. New cus­tomers include UPS, which will pur­chase 10 air­craft ini­tial­ly with an option to buy up to 150, and Blade Urban Air Mobil­i­ty, which placed a 20-strong order.

Clark added: “Each of our cur­rent and future cus­tomers, whether they are mov­ing peo­ple, med­i­cine, or goods, need the same vital things from a cer­ti­fied com­mer­cial air­craft: safe­ty, reli­a­bil­i­ty, and sus­tain­abil­i­ty. We are pleased that the air­craft we’re build­ing can ser­vice these needs across so many appli­ca­tions.”

Dr. Mar­tine Roth­blatt, CEO of Unit­ed Ther­a­peu­tics, which was Beta’s first cus­tomer and set the ini­tial spec­i­fi­ca­tion for the ALIA air­craft, said: “We’re delight­ed to wel­come new investors to Beta. In the world of med­ical trans­port, it’s impor­tant that we cre­ate the most reli­able and sus­tain­able sys­tem for mobil­i­ty in all weath­er con­di­tions.

“This new fund­ing will accel­er­ate Beta’s devel­op­ment. Elec­tric pow­ered avi­a­tion is the future of on-demand organ trans­porta­tion, and with the ALIA air­craft and charg­ing net­work, that future is clos­er than we think.”