Skyportz has been assembling the pieces of the advanced air mobility puzzle in Australia for the last five years. Its focus is on breaking the nexus between aviation and airports and enabling property owners to activate their sites with vertiports.
This emerging industry is focused to launch in Dubai and Abu Dhabi with the electric air taxi manufacturers Archer and Joby, set to commence operations in the next year.
With these recent announcements in the Middle East both companies have found significant investment flowing into the supporting vertiport infrastructure to support operations.
Joby partner, Skyports has secured a $110-million investment from ACS Group through its subsidiary, Iridium and Archer secured a “multi hundred million dollar investment” from the Abu Dhabi Investment Office to support operational infrastructure.
“These investments in the Middle East into vertiport infrastructure give us a lot of confidence with Skyportz here in Australia that we are on the right track”, said Skyportz CEO, Clem Newton-Brown.
“What is clear is that the capital investment has followed the announcement of launch regions for advanced air mobility and Skyportz is well positioned to capitalize on the opportunity to facilitate this revolution in aviation in Australia when it comes,” said Newton-Brown.
Skyportz is currently raising funds to continue its preparatory works in Australia through the Birchal platform and reached its minimum raise last week in 29 minutes after opening. The raise closes on Thursday, May 2.
Melbourne- based airport construction specialist, Maz Group, has emerged as the lead investor, positioning itself to be at the forefront of this emerging industry.
Maz Group has experience in airport terminal construction, hangars and general aviation with projects including Melbourne Airport and Launceston Airport and will be collaborating with Skyportz in vertiport design and construction.
“Maz Group has extensive experience in all aspects of airport building – from hangars to terminals to baggage handling this is our area of expertise”, said Marty Craggill, managing director.
“We are looking forward to working with Skyportz to develop an entirely new class of building — the vertiport terminal for the emerging electric air taxi industry.”
Newton-Brown welcomed the collaboration with the Maz group.
“At this stage of our business we greatly value investors who can not only provide funds, but also their expertise and experience to help us shape the next stage of our growth,” said Newton-Brown.
“At Skyportz we are developing concepts and designs for something that does not yet exist — the electric air taxi vertiport. The input of the Maz Group as a significant shareholder will greatly enhance our ability to actually build our vertiport network when the time is right.”
Skyportz is in discussions with launch markets outside of Australia to licence their brand and systems.
