OREANDA-NEWS.  The Helvetia Venture Fund is investing in Volocopter GmbH. This German company develops fully electric vertical take-off and landing multicopters for use as air taxis that will redefine the urban mobility landscape.

The Helvetia Venture Fund is investing in the German company Volocopter GmbH. Volocopter has developed a fully electric vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft equipped with 18 small rotors. The company designed the Volocopter for future use as autonomous air taxis, which will completely transform the concept of urban mobility. In addition to offering considerable time savings, the Volocopter is safe, quiet and environmentally friendly. Some finished prototypes are already available for autonomous as well as manned flights. Volocopter has entered into a partnership with the city of Dubai to run tests for this new form of mobility.

"The investment in Volocopter offers Helvetia the opportunity to be involved in the launch of a completely new mobility segment, which will give rise to completely new insurance needs", explains Martin Tschopp, Head of Corporate Development. "In Helvetia we have gained another investor, who can support our long-term vision of establishing autonomous air taxis as an alternative means of transport", says Florian Reuter, CEO of Volocopter GmbH. 

About Volocopter

Volocopter GmbH is the world leader in the development of fully electric, vertical take-off and landing multicopters for the transport of people and for use as heavy lift drones. The technical features are extremely flexible and allow piloted, remote control as well as fully automated flights. In 2016, Volocopter received preliminary certification from the German Aviation Authority for a two-seater Volocopter, and in 2017, the aviation start-up company concluded an agreement with RTA Dubai for the worldwide premi?re of a fully autonomous air taxi service. Since the company's establishment, the founders Stephan Wolf and Alexander Zosel have gathered together a dynamic team of experienced managers including CEO Florian Reuter (previously with Siemens) and CTO Jan-Hendrik Boelens (previously with Airbus Helicopters), thus establishing a platform for the future growth of the company.

About Helvetia Venture Fund

The Helvetia Venture Fund invests in start-ups from the insurtech segment and in young companies whose business models provide a link to or support Helvetia’s insurance business. The fund is a wholly owned subsidiary of Helvetia Schweizerische Versicherungsgesellschaft AG and is domiciled in Luxembourg. It focusses on start-ups from throughout Europe and places an emphasis on those countries in which Helvetia operates, namely Switzerland as well as Germany, France, Italy, Austria and Spain. The total volume stands at CHF 55 million.

About the Helvetia Group

In almost 160 years, the Helvetia Group has grown from a number of Swiss and foreign insurance companies into a successful international insurance group. Today, Helvetia has subsidiaries in its home market Switzerland as well as in the countries that make up the Europe market area: Germany, Italy, Austria and Spain. With its Specialty Markets market area, Helvetia is also present in France and in selected regions worldwide. Some of its investment and financing activities are managed through subsidiaries and fund companies in Luxembourg and Jersey. The Group is headquartered in St.Gallen, Switzerland.

Helvetia is active in the life and non-life business, and also offers customised specialty lines and reinsurance cover. Its business activities focus on retail customers as well as small and medium-sized companies and larger corporates. With some 6,500 employees, the company provides services to more than 5 million customers. With a business volume of CHF 8.51 billion, Helvetia generated underlying earnings of CHF 491.8 million in the 2016 financial year. The registered shares of Helvetia Holding are traded on the SIX Swiss Exchange under the symbol HELN.