Volocopter, German urban air mobility (UAM) pioneer, and Kakao Mobility (KM), South Korea’s largest mobility platform company, have inked a memorandum of understanding to conduct a feasibility study on introducing UAM in South Korea.
The study will identify a list of potential commercial routes, operational capabilities, and business models necessary for a UAM service operator in South Korea. The findings, to be released by February 2022, will lay the groundwork for possible future cooperation between both companies to launch UAM services in South Korea, which plans to commercialize the service by 2025.
UAM refers to urban transportation systems that move people by air. This mobility form complements existing mobility options in cities to reduce congestion and lets people reach their destinations faster and more comfortably. As the pioneer in the UAM industry, Volocopter is the first and only electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) company globally to have obtained both design and production organization approvals from European Union Aviation Safety Agency.
Florian Reuter, CEO of Volocopter, said, “Having a strong and reliable network of partners has always been a fundamental factor for our continued success. We believe that the synergy from the cooperation with a leading local partner helps us develop a service tailored for the domestic market. We are very excited about our partnership with Kakao Mobility, South Korea’s industry leader in platform technology. Through this partnership, we will leverage Kakao Mobility’s existing network of urban ground mobility and readapt their strengths for urban air mobility.”
Kakao Mobility has Kakao T app, which is the largest mobility platform in South Korea and offers various mobility-related services such as taxis, parking, and navigation through this Mobility-as-a-Service app. Seungil You, Chief Technology Officer of Kakao Mobility, said, “As the largest mobility platform in South Korea with 30 million registered users, Kakao Mobility has deep insights on traffic patterns and customer needs in the Korean mobility market. Starting from the cooperation with Volocopter in the Korean market, we are looking forward to expanding our partnership across the UAM industry worldwide as well as our business as an airspace mobility platform in the future.”
Volocopter has recently conducted two public test flights at Gimpo International Airport and Incheon Airport of Seoul, South Korea, the republic’s first-ever crewed public test flights of an eVTOL aircraft. About Volocopter
Volocopter is building the world’s first sustainable and scalable urban air mobility business to bring affordable air taxi services to megacities worldwide. With the VoloCity, the company is developing the first fully electric “eVTOL” aircraft in certification to transport passengers safely and quietly within cities. Volocopter leads and cooperates with partners in infrastructure, operations, and air traffic management to build the ecosystem necessary to ‘Bring Urban Air Mobility to Life’. In 2011, Volocopter performed the first-ever crewed flight of a purely electric multicopter and has since showcased numerous public flights with its full-scale aircraft. The most notable have been the public test flights at Singapore’s Marina Bay in October 2019 and the world’s first autonomous eVTOL flight in Dubai 2017. Volocopter is also developing products for the logistics space with their heavy-lift cargo variant, the VoloDrone. Founded in 2011 by Stephan Wolf and Alexander Zosel, Volocopter has 400 employees in offices in Bruchsal, Munich, and Singapore. The company has raised a total of €322 million in equity. Volocopter‘s investors include Daimler, Geely, DB Schenker, BlackRock, and Intel Capital amongst others. Find out more at: www.volocopter.com
About Kakao MobilityKakao Mobility was established in 2017 after the mobility business unit was spun-off from Kakao Corp. With the mission to making mobility “Faster, More Convenient, and Safer” through its Kakao T MaaS platform, Kakao Mobility continues to drive innovation and growth by providing various mobility services including taxi-hailing, on-demand designated driver service, electric bicycle sharing, shuttle/train/flight reservation, mobile parking reservation/payment and turn-by-turn navigation. Kakao Mobility has been recognized for its value and growth potential as a representative mobility company in Korea by attracting more than KRW 1 trillion in cumulative global investment from leading global investors and technology companies such as Google, Carlyle Group, TPG, LG, GS Caltex.
