In mid-2024, the Munich air taxi startup Lilium became the subject of a public debate. The reason: Lilium had applied for a loan from KfW worth 100 million euros – and both the state and the state of Bavaria were supposed to guarantee it. This means that if Lilium had not been able to repay the loan, taxpayers would have had to step in.
But for the startup it was about much more than the 100 million euros. According to its own information, Lilium was close to a crucial milestone: the first manned test flight. Several people from the corporate environment also told Gründerszene that additional investor money in the hundreds of millions was tied to the KfW loan. According to ex-CEO Klaus Roewe, the state guarantee should above all be a signal to foreign investors – a commitment from the German state to a startup like Lilium.
