Lilium

eVTOLGermany

New to Unitard

💀 Dead / Bankrupt

Peak $3.3 BillionToday

~-98%

from peak

🦄
Became a unicorn
2021
📈
Peak valuation
$3.3 Billion ’21
💔
Became a Unitard
~Oct 2024
💸
Last valuation
Wiped out

Capital raised

$1.2B

Total raised

$354K/day

Raised per day

Total raised averaged per day over approximately 9.3 years from founding to bankruptcy or shutdown. This is not measured cash burn. Methodology

Funding: TechCrunch

Current status

Insolvency 2024-25

The rise & fall

7 moments · 2015–2025

The key moments, with employee sentiment along the way.

2015

Founded near Munich

Daniel Wiegand and three TU Munich co-founders set out to build an all-electric vertical-takeoff jet.

TechCrunch

2019

The five-seat Lilium Jet flies

Prototype hover flights fuel the dream of an electric air taxi network.

TechCrunch

Sep 2021

The peak: a $3.3B Nasdaq debut via SPAC$3.3B

The Qell merger takes it public; unicorn status and the all-time high arrive on the same day.

Tech.eu

2022–24

Burning cash at altitude

The jet never leaves the prototype stage; roughly $1.2B raised is consumed faster than new money can be found.

TechCrunch

2022–24

From the inside · Glassdoor reviews, 2022–24

Insiders saw it coming: Glassdoor reviews warned as early as 2022 that the company was spending its way toward collapse, and later ones flagged erratic finances, a revolving door of inexperienced managers, and leadership that kept reassuring staff while downplaying the cash crisis right up to insolvency.

Oct 2024

Insolvency — joins the Unitard Club 💔

Its operating subsidiaries file for insolvency after the last funding hopes fall through; the jet remains uncertified.

Tech.eu

2025

The rescue collapses

A buyer's attempt to revive the company falls apart and the wind-down becomes final, wiping out nearly all of the peak value (~-98%).

Tech.eu

$3.23Bof peak value erased · 9 years

💬 entries paraphrase anonymous, unverified reviews posted publicly on Glassdoor ↗; dated facts carry their source.

How it happened

Lilium was a German developer of an all-electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) jet, reaching a valuation of roughly $3.3B when it went public via a SPAC merger with Qell in 2021. It burned cash developing its aircraft while struggling to raise more funding; its subsidiaries filed for insolvency in 2024, and after a rescue attempt collapsed it wound down in 2024-25, wiping out nearly all its value.

Source: Tech.eu; SPAC via Qell

Where they went

Klaus Roewe
last CEO
Leadership Companion at COCOMIN AG
LinkedIn ↗
Daniel Wiegand
co-founder & CEO (TU Munich; the idea started with a V-22 Osprey video)
Co-Founder at Stealth
LinkedIn ↗
Sebastian Born
co-founder (TU Munich engineering postgraduate)
Co-Founder / Chief Operating Officer at Stealth Startup (Deep Tech)
LinkedIn ↗
Matthias Meiner
co-founder (mechatronics engineer)
Not on record
Patrick Nathen
co-founder (aerodynamics)
Co-Founder at Stealth Startup (Deep Tech)
LinkedIn ↗