Vertical Aerospace

Vertical Aerospace

Vertical Aerospace was established in 2016 by Stephen Fitzpatrick, an entrepreneur who previously built Ovo Energy into one of the UK's largest independent energy retailers. The company designs and manufactures electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft from its headquarters in Bristol, home to the largest aerospace cluster in Europe. Fitzpatrick has self-funded significant early development alongside external capital raises, positioning the firm as a different kind of entrant — an operator-builder funded by a founder who understands consumer-scale infrastructure. Vertical's strategy centers on certifying and producing the VX4, a piloted, five-seat eVTOL aircraft targeting intra-city routes under 100 miles. The aircraft uses a proprietary battery and powertrain system, with Rolls-Royce Electrical as an early design partner. Confirmed launch customers include American Airlines (with a conditional pre-order of up to 250 aircraft), Virgin Atlantic (up to 150), Japan Airlines (up to 100), and aircraft lessor Avolon (up to 500), giving the firm a nominal commercial pipeline valued above $5 billion (per the firm, 2023). The engineering program is concentrated in the United Kingdom but certification strategy spans both the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), a concurrent approach few peers attempt. Scale includes over 350 engineers and technical staff as of 2023, supported by supplier relationships with GKN Aerospace, Honeywell, and Leonardo. The firm listed on the New York Stock Exchange in December 2021 via a merger with Broadstone Acquisition Corp., a blank-check company; that transaction provided gross proceeds of approximately $394 million, though subsequent milestone-based capital raises have been necessary. A key recent event is the November 2023 appointment of Stuart Simpson, formerly CFO of Rolls-Royce, to the permanent CFO seat following an interim period. A genuine structural differentiator is the company's publicly traded status paired with an aggressive certification roadmap — a combination that forces engineering transparency and quarterly financial disclosure while the firm still generates zero revenue. The shareholder base mixes institutional climate-tech funds, strategic aerospace corporations, and retail investors. Fitzpatrick retains controlling voting power through a dual-class share structure, which allows the founder to make long-cycle engineering decisions without quarterly shareholder pressure on certification deadlines — an unusual governance feature in a pre-revenue aerospace manufacturer.