‘Britain’s Elon Musk’ becomes billionaire as flying taxis ready for lift-off in London

ondon serial entrepreneur Stephen Fitzpatrick was today awarded clear billionaire status after his Bladerunner-style flying electric taxi business launched a US float valuing his stake at around $1 billion.

The valuation Fitzpatrick’s float puts on his Vertical Aerospace business will add to the £600 million value of his stake in Ovo, the fast-growing green energy provider that he also founded and runs.

Vertical Aerospace is designing and building electric aircraft which he claims will be faster, quicker and greener than helicopters but with the same versatility of where they can take off and land from.

Transport is about to go through the biggest change since the jet engine

Fitzpatrick, fast gaining the status of Britain’s Elon Musk told the Standard: “It’s a great day for us and great day for British business and engineering.

“It’s great to be able to make this announcement and tell the world what we’ve been doing for the past few years; all the progress and work we have put in.”

Founded five years ago, the company has developed a 200 mph craft capable of taking four passengers and a pilot up to a range of 120 miles. It is also silent, potentially making it easier for them to obtain permission to fly over residential areas.

The tycoon is floating the Bristol-based business in the US via a special purpose acquisition vehicle (SPAC) set up by fellow UK entrepreneur Hugh Osmond. The deal values Vertical Aerospace’s equity at $2.2 billion and will raise $394 million to hire new staff and build manufacturing facilities.

He today announced orders for up to 1000 of the aircraft from American Airlines and aeroplane leasing giant Avolon.

Virgin Atlantic has also signed an option to place pre-orders with a view to flying passengers into Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester airports.

Combined, the three orders would total $4 billion if they happen.

Fitzpatrick said while Vertical Aerospace was a British engineering champion, he had no choice but to opt for a US share listing. “The UK capital markets don’t really support this kind of business at the moment,” he said.

“I would like that to change but at the moment it is obvious the ecosystem is far more advanced in the US.

“We are raising nearly half a billion dollars for a pre-revenue business and unfortunately we have seen time and time again that raising that kind of capital in the UK is not easy to do. There are deep capital markets in the US.”

He added that funding biotech and fintech companies was well developed in the UK, “but outside those two, the UK has not developed the same kinds of expertise.”

He stressed that the Spac team led by Osmond was made up of British entrepreneurs: “We liked the idea of working with entrepreneurs, and not just corporate financiers,” he said.

Virgin said passengers using its Vertical aircraft could make the 56 mile journey from Cambridge to Heathrow in just 22 minutes rather than facing the current one-and-a-half hour car journey.

As part of the float, Vertical Aerospace’s technical partners including American Airlines, Rolls-Royce and Honeywell will invest, cementing relationships that will see them shoulder much of Vertical’s research and development costs.

This “asset light” business model means Vertical could reach profit and cash flow breakeven with sales of less than 100 aircraft, the company said in its Spac proposal to investors.

Tech investors Rocket Internet and 40 North are also key investors.

Other companies working on Vertical’s engineering include UK giant GKN.

Commercial operations are planned to start in 2024 after European aircraft regulators grant approval.

Vertical Aerospace will be tested by regulators to stringent commercial airline standards, which the company said would make its craft “100 times” safer than a helicopter.

Because it has four propellers, its engineers claim it has less chance of catastrophic failure than a traditional one-propeller helicopter.