Archer has lined up some big-name backers that are putting money into the new public company: United Airlines and Stellantis, which owns Fiat Chrysler, along with the venture arm of Exor, the Agnelli family’s holding company. There have also been a host of startups from other parts of the electric transport sector that have gone public through reverse mergers with SPACs in the past year: These include electric-car makers Fisker, Nikola, Lordstown Motors, Canoo, XL Fleet Corp., battery startup Quantumscape, and Lidar makers Velodyne Lidar and Luminar Technologies. Lillium, a competing air taxi startup from Germany that is backed by some prominent venture capital firms, is also considering a SPAC deal, according to a report in an industry trade publication. Joby Aviation, the electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOL) producer that bought Uber’s former flying taxi business, has hired investment bankers to also explore a public listing through a SPAC, targeting a $5 billion valuation, according to a Reuters report. Blade currently operates helicopter transport services but plans to invest in a range of new landing pads to service all the flying taxis that technologists think will soon be buzzing through our skies. Archer follows Blade Urban Air Mobility, which went public in December through a merger with SPAC Experience Investment Corp. The merged company, which will trade under the ticker ACHR, is expected to have a value of $3.8 billion after the transaction completes. It announced today that it will secure a public listing through a reverse merger with Atlas Crest Investment Corp., a NYSE-listed special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC.
The latest is Archer, a Palo Alto–based company that is one of hundreds around the world working on newfangled electric-powered aircraft that can take off and land vertically. Every time you hear a bell ring, does another flying taxi company get its wings? Well, not quite, but every time the New York Stock Exchange opening bell rings these days, another next-generation aviation startup seems to be getting its listing on the Big Board.
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