Air cab manufacturer Lilium lays off all 1,000 employees – Insolvency failed
Vertical take-off air cabs were the dream of the Bavarian start-up Lilium. Now it has finally been shattered. 1,000 people lose their jobs at Christmas.
Air cab developer Lilium has failed with its own insolvency: as Keno Sander, manager at Lilium, writes on LinkedIn, the start-up in Gauting near Munich ceased operations on Friday. The GrĂĽnderszene blog also reports, citing several sources within the company, that Lilium has laid off all 1,000 employees.
According to Gründerszene information, no deal was reached from the previous talks with an investor –, who had apparently not been able to prove in time that he had the necessary liquid funds. In his LinkedIn post, Sander regretted that the Lilium Jet, as the air cab was to be called, would not become a reality after all. Lilium has not yet commented on the development on its official communication channels. According to information from Handelsblatt, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had also not yet received any information on Friday evening –, possibly because talks with investors were not concluded until after the weekend.
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No backers – no hope
Lilium announced its insolvency on its own initiative on October 24 – This affected the subsidiaries "Lilium GmbH" and "Lilium eAircraft GmbH" The listed parent company Lilium NV, based in Amsterdam, filed for regular insolvency soon afterwards. The start-up brought in the management consultancy and auditing firm KPMG to search for investors.
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State aid was also on the table. However, the doubts of many experts and the market about the technology finally prevailed – after massive public criticism, the Ampel coalition denied the start-up a loan of 50 million euros, and the Bavarian government also subsequently rejected the idea. Talks with several investors, which were held according to a mandatory disclosure to the SEC on December 16, were also unsuccessful. There was already talk of 200 planned redundancies. Now all that remains for the visionaries from Gauting is to hope for a Christmas miracle. However, the prospects of the very last talks with investors appear to be slim. The insolvency benefit for the workforce runs out at the end of the month, which is probably the background to the current mass layoffs. At least the unemployment benefit for the employees is secured.
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