Electric aircraft startup Eviation has laid off most of its staff, as it struggles to raise fresh funds, reported The Air Current on February 14, 2025.
According to this report, which quotes Eviation’s CEO André Stein, the project is not shutting down, but it had to take this measure in order to evaluate the right opportunities going forward.
Started in 2015 by Israeli entrepreneurs Omer Bar-Yohay, Omri Regev and Aviv Tzidon, Eviation is one of pioneers in the field of electric aviation.
In this decade of development, Eviation has gone through several iterations of its original aircraft concept. A prototype of its Alice all-electric nine-seater aircraft flew for the first and, so far, only time in September 2022. The aircraft took off from Grant County International Airport (MWH), in Moses Lake, Washington, and completed an eight-minute flight, during which it reached an altitude of 3,500 feet.
Eviation has undergone several top management changes, as well. The latest of these took place in December 2023, when André Stein, until that moment CEO of Embraer’s eVTOL arm EVE Air Mobility, took the reins of the company.
No further details about the financial situation of the company have been disclosed.
Eviation is but the latest in a string of innovative aerospace startups that have faced serious financial difficulties in early 2025.
German eVTOL developers Lilium and Volocopter have also had to file for insolvency. The latter is seeking new investors to recapitalize the business, while the former is, reportedly, facing liquidity issues despite a consortium of investors having stepped in with the promise to inject an additional €200 million into the troubled eVTOL project.
