Air-Taxi Startup Lilium Generates 29-Fold Return on Atomico Bet
- Atomico will hold on to its stake and board seat, CEO says
- Zennstrom’s firm was sole VC investor in Lilium’s Series A
Full-scale model of the seven-seater Lilium jet.
Source: LiliumThis article is for subscribers only.
Lilium’s sale to a blank-check company this week generated a 29-fold return on early investor Atomico’s initial investment, an extraordinary outcome for its bet on the German air-taxi startup that hasn’t had a commercial launch yet.
Atomico Chief Executive Officer Niklas Zennstrom had reservations about the startup and whether it made sense for the venture capital firm, which specializes in early-stage European tech companies. “We don’t really invest in airplanes,” he recalled thinking at the time.