Vision Aero, a low-altitude mobility company, has completed an angel extension round worth an eight-figure RMB sum. The round was led by Orinno Capital, with participation from Jinduo Investment.
The funds will primarily be used to accelerate R&D iteration, maiden flight testing, and airworthiness certification for the company’s first flagship model, Vector 5.
Founded in 2023, Vision Aero focuses on the R&D and manufacturing of eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) and eCTOL (electric conventional takeoff and landing) aircraft with high passenger capacity and heavy payload capabilities. Including the seed and angel rounds it completed six months ago, Vision Aero has now closed three funding rounds, raising more than RMB 100 million (USD 14.7 million) in total.
Vision Aero’s flagship model, Vector 5, is a seven-seat, three-ton-class, all-electric lift-plus-cruise eVTOL aircraft. It is designed for essential public service scenarios such as emergency rescue and medical response. The model has a maximum takeoff weight of 3,180 kilograms, a maximum payload of 680 kilograms, a maximum range of 300 kilometers, and a top cruising speed of 250 kilometers per hour. Its full-scale prototype officially rolled off the production line last June.
According to Vision Aero founder and CEO He Wei, the company completed the maiden flight of Vector 5’s full-scale frame aircraft in late March.
A frame aircraft refers to a 1:1 full-scale aircraft skeleton that integrates all equipment required for the complete aircraft, including motors, electronic control systems, batteries, and flight control systems, for integrated testing. This avoids the cumbersome process of repeatedly removing and reinstalling access panels, improving testing efficiency while reducing structural wear.
Vision Aero has reportedly completed dozens of flight-test integration sessions for the frame aircraft in the first half of this year, in preparation for the maiden flight of the full-scale Vector 5 prototype in July.
On airworthiness certification, the Northwest Regional Administration of the Civil Aviation Administration of China formally accepted Vector 5’s type certificate application on December 8 last year, bringing both the complete aircraft and its core subsystems into the certification process. Under Vision Aero’s development plan, the first cargo version of Vector 5 is expected to complete certification by the end of 2027. The company has now entered a critical window in its push toward airworthiness approval.
In addition to concentrating resources on improving Vector 5’s technical maturity and advancing certification, He said the company is also developing its second-generation model, Vector 11, an 11-seat, three-ton-class fixed-wing eCTOL aircraft. The full-scale prototype is expected to roll off the production line by the end of this year, further extending Vision Aero’s product lineup from three-ton-class aircraft to models with greater carrying capacity.
Vision Aero said it will next focus investment on three R&D areas: flight control technology, fast-charging infrastructure, and low-altitude communications. The company aims to continue advancing key aviation technologies and keep its core capabilities independently controllable. Together with further improvements to its external supply chain system, these efforts are intended to move its products from the engineering prototype stage toward commercial delivery.
“An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is most competitive in its system definition and integration capabilities,” He said. “The aviation sector involves finer specialization and more granular airworthiness requirements. We focus on structural definition and system integration. The core algorithms, controls, and overall aircraft architecture must be developed in-house, while hardware such as motors and batteries will be sourced externally. This allows us to leverage industrial collaboration and leave specialized work to high-quality partners.”
Through an R&D path that begins with scaled model validation before moving into supply chain collaboration and full-scale aircraft engineering, Vision Aero said it has reduced early-stage R&D costs and improved testing efficiency. Its 1:4 scale model also played a dual role in the early R&D stage by supporting technical validation and meeting customized client delivery requirements. That business is said to have generated eight-figure RMB revenue from accumulated orders in 2025.
But He emphasized that as full-scale aircraft development enters a more intensive stage, the team’s resources will be concentrated on full-scale aircraft. Expanding the scale model business is not the company’s current priority.
“This year, we will roll out two to three full-scale aircraft and carry out extensive testing across different scenarios and operating conditions,” He said. “That is one of our biggest tasks this year.”
In other words, revenue is not Vision Aero’s main assessment metric this year.
The low-altitude economy is still in an investment phase, marked by accelerating technical validation and a push toward airworthiness certification, rather than an output phase defined by large-scale delivery. For eVTOL startups, completing technical and flight validation more quickly and reliably, and finishing the airworthiness certification process, will matter more at this stage than generating several million RMB in revenue. Those milestones are more likely to determine companies’ industry standing and survival prospects.
From the capital market’s perspective, investors at this stage are more focused on the long-term market opportunity and ecosystem positioning than short-term cash flow. As a result, the core competitive indicators during the industry’s investment phase are the speed of technical iteration, airworthiness progress, capital reserves, and engineering capabilities. The company that first secures the three key certifications and establishes barriers in mass production and supply chain capabilities will be better positioned to lead the scale-up phase after 2030.
He said Vision Aero expects to achieve mass production in 2028. The company currently has around 100 preliminary orders. In addition to demand from state-owned enterprises, centrally administered enterprises, and local customers, about one-third of its business demand comes from overseas. As the team continues to explore demand from overseas prospective buyers, the share of global business is expected to rise further. Given their relatively favorable airworthiness certification environments, the Middle East and Southeast Asia will be higher-priority expansion regions.
The company’s approach is to move in small, fast steps, completing technical validation at each milestone at a lower cost and bringing differentiated aircraft models to market as early as possible.
“2027 will be a critical point. The overall industry, meaning eVTOL companies, may narrow to fewer than ten players,” He said. “Our goal is to become an industry leader this year, build sufficient capital reserves to participate in the next phase of competition, and continue moving toward the top tier.”
Vision Aero is also in the process of raising a new funding round.
KrASIA features translated and adapted content that was originally published by 36Kr. This article was written by A Zhi for 36Kr.