How the early leaders in urban air mobility plan to roll out their air taxi services is becoming clearer: Details about their plans are emerging as part of deals to go public, with valuations in the billions of dollars. Joby Aviation announced on Feb. 24 that it will go public through a merger with Reinvent Technology Partners, a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) formed by Linkedln co-founder Reid Hoffman and Mark Pincus, founder of gaming company Zynga. The deal will provide the startup with more than $1.5 billion to complete aircraft development and begin air taxi service and gives the combined company a $6.6 billion equity value. The Joby transaction comes hard on the heels of the merger agreement between rival urban air mobility (UAM) startup Archer and another SPAC, Atlas Crest Investment Corp., led by billionaire investment banker Ken Moelis (AW&ST Feb. 22-March 7, p. 14). That deal values the combined company at $3.8 billion and will provide close to $1.1 billion to fund the development of its electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) vehicle and the launch of air taxi operations in 2024, beginning in Los Angeles.
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