Serial Entreprenuer Martin S Hauge Is Backing A Flying Car From Slovakia

Posted on 3 min read 2205 views

Uber are not the only company who can see an advantage in being able, quite literally, to take off at the first sign of traffic.

AeroMobil, a “leading flying car designer” from Slovakia led by CEO Juraj Vaculik are about to exhibit a production ready model at the 52nd International Paris Air Show, which takes place from the 19th -25th June.

The startup received an invitation to exhibit at the Paris Air Lab, a space dedicated to innovation, aeronautics, aerospace and digital technology, from Starburst.Aero, where they plan to demonstrate the Flying Car.

AeroMobil’s endeavours have attracted the attention of a well-known Venture Capitalist and serial startup investor, Martin S. Hauge, who has made a private investment into the company for an undisclosed sum.

Hauge was a General Partner at VC firm Creandum for 11 years, where he made several investments on behalf of the firm into startups including iZettle and Spotify.

He is currently a Non-Executive Chairman of London-based Frog Capital as well as No Isolation AS, and still holds a seat on Creandum’s board. Prior to becoming an investor Hauge worked as a mentor to automobile startups including Autobutler, which he helped to build and sell to PSA, a carmaker associated with brands including Peugeot, Citroen and DS.

As Chairman of Automile, a digital platform for fleet management, Hauge helped the firm raise $12.85m US dollars from the likes of Salesforce, and Skype co-founder and Atomico VC founder Niklas Zennstrom.

Hauge says that the strength of the founding team was a key factor in making the investment; “I have worked with numerous inspiring entrepreneurs over the years and meeting the AeroMobil team it is clear they have the passion, expertise and commitment needed to disrupt the personal transportation sector. I look forward to help and support the team going forward”, he commented about the investment.

“I have been following the AeroMobil story for some time”, he added; “and having seen the launch of AeroMobil it is now the right time to invest in the company’s vision and strategy.”

AeroMobil believes in turn that they are significantly ahead of the curve when it comes to making the flying car a reality; the company, with its production ready design, are now taking  pre-orders for a limited edition AeroMobil flying car which buyers can expect to take delivery of by 2020, Aeromobil says.

The cars specs make for impressive reading; it takes just 3 minutes to convert into full flying mode, has an automotive range of 700km, an aerospace max cruise range of 750km, an automotive top speed of 160kph, aerospace top speed of 360km/h, fuel capacity of 90 litres and maximum take-off weight of 960kg, usable load = 240 kg.

“We are delighted to welcome Martin S. Hauge as a new investor in the AeroMobil, it shows seasoned, knowledgeable investors see the true potential of our proposition, says CEO Vaculik.

“We have now reached the point where the overall engineering and technology design is complete and we are focused in earnest on moving forward with our go-to-market plan. It is a truly exciting time in this sector with so many companies recognising the long-time opportunity.”

Vaculik is also “very confident we have a unique competitive advantage.  We have spent significant time building out a strong leadership team, expertise in the technology and understanding the market opportunity, which we are now able to capitalise on.”

It might seem incredible that we could see flying cars on the roads by 2020- but then again, it also seemed incredible that we could have cars that drove themselves, or robots that delivered lunch, or flying drones delivering our kitchen roll – and yet all of these things are coming to pass.

Aeromobile will doubtless be delighted to have secured investment from someone with a strong track record such as Hauge. Even he cannot have backed many more ambitious startups in his time.

Chocks away!

Leave a Reply

No Comments Yet.

%d bloggers like this: