Equity from five investors and a selected Innovation Fund grant carry the electric Microliner towards its first conforming aircraft
(Image courtesy of VÆRIDION)
German electric aircraft manufacturer VÆRIDION has closed a €30 million Series A2 round and been selected for a €94.5 million EU Innovation Fund grant, together worth around €124.5 million. Each part of the VÆRIDION funding has its own job on the nine-passenger Microliner, with the equity building the first conforming aircraft and testing its integrated battery and propulsion system, while the grant is earmarked for a final assembly facility at Oberpfaffenhofen Airport.
VÆRIDION funding splits between equity and an EU grant
SHIFT Invest and Invest-NL led the Series A2, with existing investors World Fund, Project A and Vsquared Ventures joining alongside PAYBACK founder Alexander Rittweger. Including earlier public funding, VÆRIDION has raised about €60 million to date.
Financed from EU emissions trading revenues, the Innovation Fund vsaw large-scale requests run to more than 7.5 times its €1.2 billion initial budget, and the Commission scored projects on emissions avoidance, innovation, maturity, replicability and cost efficiency. VÆRIDION’s CAROLUS is one of 12 large-scale selections among the 77 projects chosen in October 2026, with a grant agreement expected in 2027.
The Microliner’s market case rests on an ageing regional fleet.VÆRIDION cites more than 21,000 small turboprops in service with an average age of 23 years, plus about 120 European regional routes discontinued in the five years to June 2026. Set against that, the company reports commitments for more than 130 aircraft worth over €730 million, with ASL Group as launch customer.
Certification and test progress behind the electric Microliner
Developed to EASA CS-23 requirements, the Microliner has completed its Preliminary Design Review. Because its battery storage and high-voltage architecture are novel, the Pre-Application Contracts with EASA matter, since they settle how those systems will be certified ahead of the type certificate application. Finished in July 2026 with GKN Aerospace, the second contract covered the aircraft’s electrical storage, high-voltage electrical wiring interconnection systems and power distribution architecture. It builds on a two-year technical partnership with GKN and follows a first contract focused on the distributed electric propulsion architecture, and VÆRIDION expects it to serve as a reference framework for future CS-23 Level 3 projects involving high-voltage power distribution.
On the hardware side, VÆRIDION opened its production and test facility at Oberpfaffenhofen in March 2026 and has recently powered on its electric engine for the first time. Next comes the copper bird ground rig, backed by the VÆRIDION funding, where battery packs and the propulsion system will be integrated, with wind-tunnel testing alongside and the chance to test failure scenarios on the ground before flight. Drive System Design is building the propeller drive units, which will be integrated with two electric motors on the rig. Batteries sit in the wing at 60 packs per aircraft, and FlightGlobal reports peak capacity at the Oberpfaffenhofen plant of 400 packs a year. Evolito, Molicel and MT-Propeller are also programme partners.
Microliner specification and where the VÆRIDION funding goes next
A clean-sheet, fully electric design, the Microliner carries nine passengers or 10 cubic metres of cargo, with a glider-inspired wing housing patented integrated modular batteries and a multi-engine, single-propeller propulsion system. VÆRIDION targets up to 400 km with nine passengers under IFR and up to 550 km with four passengers under VFR, and aims for operating costs below €0.40 per seat-kilometre, which the company says would support fares comparable to a first-class rail ticket.
From here the sequence follows the hardware that the VÆRIDION funding pays for, with copper bird integration and wind-tunnel testing first, then the first conforming aircraft and flight test preparation. Once the grant agreement is signed, CAROLUS supports the ramp-up of final assembly at Oberpfaffenhofen as VÆRIDION works towards its goal of zero-emission regional travel by 2030.
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