JOBY AVIATION

JoeBen Bevirt is a serial inventor who had already founded companies making camera gear (Joby, the maker of the GorillaPod tripod) and lab equipment. He founded Joby Aviation in 2009, years before anyone took flying taxis seriously, and spent about a decade developing the aircraft largely out of sight on his ranch near Santa Cruz.

Intel Capital led a $100 million round in 2018 and Toyota led a $590 million round in 2020. In December 2020 Joby acquired Uber's Elevate air taxi division, and Uber invested alongside the deal.

The company went public in August 2021 through a merger with Reinvent Technology Partners, a SPAC backed by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman.

Joby is building an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft that carries a pilot and four passengers at up to about 200 mph. It is all-electric with six tilting propellers.

Revenue will come from running an air taxi service in major cities. Joby plans to be both the manufacturer and the operator, like Uber owning the cars.

In 2025 it bought the passenger business of Blade, the helicopter and seaplane booking service, to get customers and routes before its own aircraft enter service. Toyota is a major investor and manufacturing partner.

Joby S4 (electric vertical takeoff aircraft, one pilot plus four passengers), top speed about 200 mph, designed for trips up to about 100 miles (a 2021 test flight covered 154 miles), which Joby says is up to 100 times quieter than a helicopter. Toyota manufacturing partnership, the Blade booking app it bought in 2025, and partnerships with Uber and Delta.

Win certification and launch where regulators move fastest. Joby signed a six-year deal with Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority and planned to start carrying passengers there in 2026, with a vertiport at Dubai International.

In the US it is working through the last stages of FAA type certification. It lined up Delta and Uber as booking partners, bought Blade's passenger business in 2025, and is scaling manufacturing with Toyota's help.

FAA certification. Getting a brand-new type of aircraft certified to carry passengers is one of the most complex regulatory processes in the world, involving years of testing and documentation.

Joby began formal work with the FAA in 2018 and once targeted a 2024 or 2025 launch. As of September 2026 it is still not certified in the US.

Even after certification, it has to build vertiports, prove safety to the public, and make the economics of each ride work while burning hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

Toyota Motor Corporation (about $894 million invested in total), Intel Capital, Uber, Delta Air Lines, SK Telecom, Baillie Gifford, BlackRock, public market investors