Lilium
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Lilium was a German electric air-taxi developer founded in 2015 and based in Oberpfaffenhofen. Its Lilium Jet was a fully electric eVTOL aircraft with pivoting wings and ducted fans — an unusually original design — promising zero-emission, low-noise regional flights. After going public via SPAC in 2021 at a $3.3 billion valuation, it built a tentative order pipeline of over 780 jets (including up to 100 for Saudia Group), aimed at first manned flights in 2025 and EASA certification toward 2026, and employed more than 1,000 people at its peak.
02 / Lilium FAILURE REASONS
Why it failed
Lilium ran out of cash before its aircraft was certified. In October 2024 its German subsidiaries entered self-administration after the German parliament's budget committee blocked a €50 million guarantee for a proposed €100 million convertible loan from state bank KfW. A Christmas-eve rescue deal with the Mobile Uplift Corporation consortium (promising over €200 million for the operating assets) failed when the funds never arrived; on December 20, 2024 the subsidiaries terminated all remaining employees. When last-ditch financing failed to materialize in February 2025, Lilium filed for insolvency again and ceased operations.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Bankruptcy
Lilium N.V. Form 6-K (24 Oct 2024) and company PR stated principal German subsidiaries Lilium GmbH and Lilium eAircraft GmbH were overindebted and would file German insolvency/self-administration after KfW/Bavaria loan guarantees failed and private funding conditions collapsed.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
A $3.3 billion valuation, a 780-jet order book and 200 million euros in pledged rescue capital all dissolved as cash burn outran the company's financing.
- 02
The blocked KfW state guarantee was the immediate trigger of the collapse.
- 03
No asset sale proceeds or investor recovery figures were disclosed.