BERLIN, March 23 (Xinhua) -- German air taxi startup Lilium has completed a funding round worth over 240 million U.S. dollars, the Munich-based company announced on Monday.

"The new funds will enable us to take big strides towards our shared goal of delivering regional air mobility as early as 2025," said Christopher Delbrueck, chief financial officer (CFO) of Lilium.

According to Lilium, which is developing an all-electric, vertical take-off and landing aircraft for regional air mobility, the leading investor was Chinese technology company Tencent.

The total capital raised so far exceeds 340 million dollars, according to Lilium. The funds would be used to support further development of the Lilium Jet as well as "underpinning preparations for serial production in Lilium's newly-completed manufacturing facilities."

The German air taxi pioneer is planning to operate a regional air mobility service from 2025 onwards in several regions around the world. The first stage of flight testing has recently been completed, during which Lilium's five-seater jet exceeded a speed of 100 kilometers per hour.

Lilium was founded in 2015 and has recently had to cope with a setback as one of the company's two air taxi prototypes was severely damaged in a fire during maintenance work at the end of February.

Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Daniel Wiegand did not want to comment on the cause of the fire as the company was still waiting for the result of an independent investigation, the German newspaper Handelsblatt reported on Monday. Enditem

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