Skyfly Technologies has closed a $10m (£7.5m) seed round led by HICO Investment Group, with defence-tech fund Archangel participating, to take its two-seat Axe aircraft through certification ahead of first deliveries in 2027.
Skyfly, founded in 2019 and based in Thorpe Mandeville, Northamptonshire, builds electric and hybrid-electric aircraft capable of vertical take-off. Its flagship product, the Axe, is a two-seater aimed at private owners, while the Longbow is an unmanned, hybrid-electric derivative designed for defence and government buyers.
The seed round was led by HICO Investment Group, a specialist growth equity investor. Archangel, a €50m early-stage fund that invests only in defence-first companies, joined the round. Valuation, the split between the two investors and any dilution to the founding team were not disclosed.
Use of funds
Skyfly said the capital will pay for certification of the Axe, expand the team and production capacity in the UK and the US, and speed up work on the hybrid propulsion system that powers the Longbow.
The timing is tied to US regulation. In July 2026 the Federal Aviation Administration's MOSAIC reforms rewrote the Light Sport Aircraft rules to admit electric propulsion, multi-motor designs and vertical take-off aircraft into a category built for private owners rather than airlines. Skyfly says the Axe was designed to fit that category before the rules changed, giving it a certification route that did not previously exist for electric aircraft.
Chief executive Michael Thompson said the round gives the company the resources to move the Axe from a flying prototype to a certified aircraft in customers' hands, and to stand up series production.
The numbers behind the aircraft
The Axe prototype has completed more than 100 piloted flights, including what the company describes as Europe's first airfield-to-airfield eVTOL flight. It holds experimental flight permits in both the UK and the US, where a dedicated test team has been flying since 2025.
Skyfly reports 61 private customers on its order book. The Axe has a quoted range of more than 100 miles, a flight time of 60 to 90 minutes, a cruising speed of 100mph and a 200kg payload, with a projected operating cost of about £70 per flying hour.
The Longbow carries the same 200kg payload over a range of more than 400 miles and is aimed at cargo resupply, surveillance, medical evacuation and ship-to-shore logistics. Both aircraft are to be built at Skyfly's 10,000 sq ft facility in Thorpe Mandeville.
What's next
The round puts Skyfly among a small group of UK aerospace start-ups pitching to both civil and defence buyers, a split that has become more common as defence-focused funds such as Archangel put money into dual-use hardware.
The next test for the business is certification under the new US rules and delivery of its first aircraft in 2027. For a company with a 61-unit order book and a seed-stage balance sheet, a larger round to fund series production is likely to follow.
Original source: BusinessCloud — https://businesscloud.co.uk/news/skyfly-lands-7-5m-to-put-vertical-takeoff-planes-in-customers-hands/ (also reported by EU-Startups — https://www.eu-startups.com/2026/10/britains-skyfly-raises-e8-91-million-to-bring-its-two-seat-axe-evtol-to-market-and-develop-longbow-for-defence/)
