Vertical Aerospace seeks new funding through additional share capital

Vertical Aerospace will seek new investments later this year to make sure that it is adequately funded to meet its objectives for 2024 and beyond. The Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) start-up says existing funding is sufficient for 2023 and 2024, as it has a net cash position of almost £123 million last December. But it likes to have a more robust position, Vertical says in its shareholder letter and annual report that were released this week. Vertical Aerospace seeks new funding through additional share capital.

“We expect our investment in the 12 months following the date of this letter to be approximately £90 million, which will be used primarily to fund the creation and testing of the prototype aircraft, support the certification process and invest in additional personnel across both engineering and support function,” Chief Financial Officer John Martin says in the shareholder letter.

Hence the need for more funding, Vertical says in the 2022 annual report: “We expect to issue additional share capital in the future (including through our Equity Subscription Line) that will result in dilution to all other shareholders. We have granted, and expect we will continue to grant equity awards to employees and directors under our equity incentive plans. We may also raise capital through equity financings in the future. As part of our business strategy, we may make or receive investments in companies, solutions or technologies and issue equity securities to pay for any such acquisition or investment. Any such issuances of additional share capital may cause shareholders to experience significant dilution of their ownership interests and the per share value of our ordinary shares to decline.”