by Michael Willoughby
Flying car developer SkyDrive, established by the members of CARTIVATOR, a group of aircraft, drones, and automotive engineers, has secured 14m USD through third-party share issuance funding and subsidies, the company announced. A total of 18.5m USD has now been raised and manned test flights will begin this year.
Contributing venture capital partners of SkyDrive Inc. include Drone Fund, Z Corporation, STRIVE III Limited Liability Partnership, ITOCHU Technology Ventures, Inc. and Energy & Environment Investment, Inc. The president of STRIVE III Limited Liability Partnership, Tatsuo Tsutsumi, steps up as outside director of SkyDrive Inc.
“We are delighted to be able to announce this financing breakthrough, which is testament to our hardworking team and speed of development. Securing the backing of these investors will be instrumental in getting our world-leading technology off the ground and into the skies”, said SkyDrive Chief Executive, Tomohiro Fukuzawa
“We are clear that our product will improve the lives of consumers right across the world by efficiency of moving and happiness of flying – be it linking people to jobs, their family or a dream holiday. Flying cars will be the travel mode of the future and today we took a giant leap towards making that happen.”
In addition to focusing on the landmark upcoming manned test flight, the company is working on product development and certification. The next phase in SkyDrive’s expansion plan is to recruit talented and passionate people to achieve the collective goal of bringing “Flight to All”