Aviation Industry Veteran-Led eVTOL Developer Flight Era Secures Four Funding Rounds in One Year | Unity Ventures Portfolio News
Went from project approval to full-scale aircraft rollout in six months, setting a new domestic speed record for eVTOL companies at the same stage.
Flight Era, an enterprise focused on advanced eVTOL aircraft R&D, manufacturing, and application services, recently completed two consecutive funding rounds — an Angel+ and Angel++ round — raising over 50 million yuan. The proceeds will be directed primarily toward R&D prototyping and test flights for its F2500 series aircraft.
The two rounds were led by Starry Sky Investment, Lushi Investment, and market-oriented capital focused on civil aviation and low-altitude economy industry chains, with joint participation from Xunshang Venture Capital, Huaian Gaotou Chuangying, and Xingxiang Sci-Tech Innovation / Zhuzhou Gaoke Industrial Investment government industry capital. Existing shareholders also continued to increase their stakes.
Unity Ventures was Flight Era's seed-round investor. We believe Flight Era's team, drawn from China's major aviation research institutes and OEM design centers, brings deep experience in the development and delivery of multiple medium-to-large transport aircraft as well as tiltrotor programs, with strong capabilities in engineering implementation and airworthiness certification. Its technical approach combines the flexibility of vertical takeoff and landing with the efficiency of long-range cruise, with energy efficiency, payload capacity, and wind resistance all poised to reach top-tier industry levels.
We are optimistic about its clear strategy of entering commercialization through cargo operations and evolving toward a passenger mobility platform, which aligns with core demand for medium-to-long-distance low-altitude logistics and future urban air mobility. It is a highly promising dark horse in the low-altitude economy race.
Founded in 2025, Flight Era is a high-tech enterprise specializing in advanced eVTOL aircraft R&D, manufacturing, and application services. It is also China's first company to develop an eVTOL in the "range-extended + full tiltrotor" configuration, having completed four funding rounds in less than a year with total financing exceeding 100 million yuan.
Founder Debiao Li has spent nearly two decades in the aviation industry, with complete development experience across multiple military and civilian aircraft programs. He combines the technical foundation of state-owned enterprises with the market-oriented operational experience of private enterprises, and excels at translating cutting-edge technologies into engineering products that meet airworthiness standards — forming a core competitive advantage of "state-team technical DNA + market-oriented execution capability."
The core team brings together top domestic aviation research and technical experts, with former technical backbone from major aviation research institutes and OEM design centers forming its foundation. Members are all graduates of China's premier aerospace, aviation, and astronautics universities with solid professional grounding, and the team has grown to nearly 100 people.
The low-altitude economy has been designated a national strategic emerging industry and stands at the precipice of policy and technological breakthroughs. Globally, aerial mobility has become an inevitable choice for alleviating ground congestion. Compared with traditional aircraft, eVTOLs offer simplified technical configurations, reduced mechanical complexity, and the core advantages of new-energy platforms — resulting in overall cleaner, more reliable designs that combine safety, ease of use, economy, comfort, and intelligence, giving them exceptionally strong potential for commercial adoption.
Debiao Li told Hard Kr that Flight Era chose to enter the market in 2025 precisely because leading players had largely validated the full tiltrotor technical approach, and the market had reached a critical window of transitioning from "scientific exploration" to "engineering execution."
Compared with other companies on the market, Flight Era has selected the optimal combination of "full tiltrotor + intelligent range-extension system" for its product and technical path.
The full tiltrotor configuration enables seamless transition between vertical takeoff and landing and efficient cruise, breaking through the "can't fly fast" limitation of conventional eVTOLs with a maximum speed of 300 km/h. At the same time, the company addresses the range anxiety common to pure-electric eVTOLs through an innovative intelligent range-extension unit (350 kW), achieving a range of 500 kilometers and payload capacity of 500 kg — advantages in endurance and carrying capacity that are markedly superior to existing comparable products.
Debiao Li explained that the full tiltrotor configuration offers extremely high structural and flight efficiency: with the same energy consumption, it flies farther and carries more than aircraft with existing configurations. Currently, the entire low-altitude mobility sector's main bottleneck is how to meet market demands for product capability — somewhat analogous to how new energy vehicles had to solve range issues before market takeoff. Although eVTOLs have many core advantages over traditional aircraft, their pain point lies in overall carrying capacity being relatively weak. The full tiltrotor configuration plus range-extension system has become the broadly consensus ultimate solution within the industry.
Full tiltrotor is also the technical path chosen by Joby Aviation, the world's most valuable eVTOL company. Its core aircraft, the Joby S4, has completed over 50,000 miles of flight testing, its first FAA-compliant production verification aircraft has made its maiden flight, and airworthiness certification has entered the final Stage 5. "This is also the company we benchmark against globally," Debiao Li noted.
Additionally, Flight Era's products feature distinctive characteristics in technical approach and commercialization pathway design. Cargo before passengers, consistent overall aircraft design and configuration across different products, simultaneous compatibility of both power systems, and a 6-seat layout for the passenger variant ensure sufficient profit margins and commercial operational viability.
The company has already established a product family centered on the F2500. The F2500ERF range-extended cargo variant was launched in 2025, with maximum commercial payload exceeding 500 kg and range surpassing 500 km, primarily targeting transport and multi-mission use in typical scenarios. The passenger variant F2500ER is being developed in parallel, aimed at providing an excellent flight platform for air mobility and the low-altitude economy.
Notably, the first full-scale F2500ERF range-extended cargo aircraft will roll off the production line at the end of April, with a second aircraft following at the end of May, and two additional aircraft (003/004) scheduled for the second half of the year. From the company's founding to full-scale aircraft rollout took only six months — a new speed record for domestic eVTOL enterprises at this level.
Regarding future development, Flight Era has established clear milestone targets: 2026 will be its business breakthrough year, focusing on F2500ERF test flights and market entry, achieving "four aircraft in hand," completing maiden flight and tilt-transition mode flight verification, and submitting airworthiness applications; engaging logistics and emergency response sector customers and securing launch orders. From 2027-2028, it will deploy a total of six aircraft at full speed for test flights and certification work, with the core goal of obtaining F2500ERF airworthiness certification and achieving China's first operational breakthrough in this product category, while simultaneously launching passenger configuration development and certification.
The company is currently in the early stage of product development, but commercialization progress is already showing initial signs. According to Debiao Li, it already has multiple customers with clear letters of intent covering domestic and international markets and various application scenarios, building a low-altitude transportation network covering the 500 km range for high-value cargo transport, commuter mobility, and other diverse scenarios.
Unity Ventures believes Flight Era's team, drawn from China's major aviation research institutes and OEM design centers, brings deep experience in the development and delivery of multiple medium-to-large transport aircraft as well as tiltrotor programs, with strong capabilities in engineering implementation and airworthiness certification. Its technical approach combines the flexibility of vertical takeoff and landing with the efficiency of long-range cruise, with energy efficiency, payload capacity, and wind resistance poised to reach top-tier industry levels. We are optimistic about its clear strategy of entering commercialization through cargo operations and evolving toward a passenger mobility platform, which aligns with core demand for medium-to-long-distance low-altitude logistics and future urban air mobility. It is a highly promising dark horse in the low-altitude economy race.
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