VÆRIDION, a Munich company developing a battery-electric nine-seat aircraft, raised €30m (about $34.5m) in a Series A2 equity round announced on 5 November 2026.
Dutch investors SHIFT Invest and Invest-NL, the Netherlands' national investment institution, led the round. Existing investors World Fund, Project A and Vsquared Ventures took part, along with Alexander Rittweger, founder of the loyalty programme PAYBACK. No valuation was disclosed.
The company presented the news as more than €124m in new funding. Most of that is not equity. The European Union selected VÆRIDION for a €94.5m Innovation Fund grant for a project called CAROLUS, and that grant is separate from the €30m round. World Fund said the grant agreement is expected to be signed in 2027.
“This equity round enables us to build our first conforming aircraft.”Ivor van Dartel, Founder and CEO, VÆRIDION
The Microliner
VÆRIDION is building the Microliner, an all-electric aircraft for short regional routes. It is designed to carry nine passengers about 400 km under instrument flight rules, or four passengers up to 550 km under visual flight rules. A cargo version would carry 10 cubic metres of freight. The design uses a glider-like wing, modular batteries built into the airframe that the company has patented, and several electric motors driving a single propeller.
The aircraft is being designed to EASA's CS-23 rules for small aircraft, and the company is targeting operating costs below €0.40 per seat-kilometre. VÆRIDION also pitches the aircraft for smaller airfields, cargo, logistics and medical support work.
Ivor van Dartel founded the company in 2021 with Sebastian Seemann. Tech.eu reported that both are former Airbus managers. VÆRIDION has subsidiaries in Delft and Brussels.
What the money is for
The equity will pay for the first conforming aircraft, meaning a prototype built to the design that will be certified, and for integrated tests of its propulsion system. VÆRIDION opened a production and test facility at Oberpfaffenhofen airfield, near Munich, in March 2026 and recently powered up its electric engine for the first time. The next steps are joining battery packs and motors on a ground-test rig and running wind-tunnel tests.
"This equity round enables us to build our first conforming aircraft," van Dartel said. Thijs Gitmans, a general partner at SHIFT Invest, said regional aviation is one of the clearest cases where electrification makes environmental and commercial sense.
The EU grant is meant to fund a final assembly facility at Oberpfaffenhofen to move the Microliner into series production. According to AIN, building the first conforming prototype is funded for early 2027, flight tests could begin that year, and the company is targeting EASA type certification in 2030.
Orders and backers
VÆRIDION says it holds commitments for more than 130 aircraft worth over €730m (about $840m). AIN described them as conditional sales agreements. ASL Group, a Belgian private aviation company, is the launch customer, and KLM, BayernLB and TrueNoord sit on the company's market advisory committee. AIN named GKN Aerospace, Evolito, Molicel, MT-Propeller and Drive System Design as programme partners.
Including this round and earlier public funding, the company says it has raised about €60m (about $69m) to date. Earlier rounds were not broken down in the announcements.
Daria Saharova, managing partner at World Fund, linked the company to Europe's record in aircraft building, saying Airbus has shown over the past half century that Europe can build aircraft the world buys.
Company website: vaeridion.com