Odys Aviation Raises $12 Million to Develop Vertical-Takeoff Aircraft

Odys Aviation, a Long Beach-based startup looking to shake up domestic air travel with its vertical-takeoff aircraft, has raised $12.4 million in seed funding.

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The funding round saw investments from the likes of U.K.-based Giant Ventures, Silicon Valley venture firms Soma Capital and 11.2 Capital, Missouri-based Countdown Capital, Uber Elevate co-founder Nikhil Goel and Cruise Automation founder Kyle Vogt, Odys said Thursday.

The company, formerly known as Craft Aerospace, is developing vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft that would be able to ascend and descend without needing a runway. Odys’ VTOL aircraft is still in its prototype stages, so the startup plans to use the funding for a demonstration flight with a single passenger prototype later this year.

The final version of the aircraft aims to carry nine passengers (not including pilots) at a cruising altitude of 30,000 feet and a top speed of 345 miles per hour. While that maximum speed is slower than your average domestic airliner plane, the idea is that the use of urban helipads, smaller municipal airports and to-be-built “vertiports” will help drastically cut travel times. Odys’ hybrid-electric engines would have a range of 1,000 miles, allowing the aircraft to cover congested intermediate-distance routes (think Los Angeles to San Francisco, or Washington D.C. to New York City).

The new funding takes Odys’ total amount raised to $13.4 million, after it raised a $1.3 million pre-seed round last year.