PLANA participated in COMEUP 2022 held at Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) in Seoul for three days from November 9 (Wed) to 11 (Fri) and introduced its urban transportation aircraft development project.

With its establishment in July last year, PLANA is a start-up that develops ‘‘air taxis’ which are mid- to long-distance aircraft suitable for urban air traffic.

PLANA is developing an aircraft capable of flying over 500 km with a cruising speed of 300 km/h and a maximum speed of 350 km/h with one pilot and 4 to 6 passengers on board. Because it does not require a long runway due to vertical take-off and landing, it can be used anywhere in the city center making it good to use in traffic congestion areas.

PLANA, which is developing hybrid-based vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) electric powered aircraft, succeeded in attracting 11.8 billion won of pre-series A investment in October. As the lead of Schmidt-DSC Investment Future Mobility Fund, Shinhan Asset Management, Future Play, Dt& Investment, Industrial Bank of Korea, and Korea Technology Finance Corporation participated in the investment.

An official from PLANA said, “We are moving towards the final goal of launching in 2028. And we are preparing the foundation for moving to the next stage of the business, such as technical cooperation and attracting investment.”

Having its 4th iteration this year, ‘COMEUP 2022’ was hosted by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Minister Young Lee) and organized by the Korea Startup Forum (Chairman Jaewook Park). Startups, investors, and people related to startups from over 15 countries attended, and this year in particular was the start of COMEUP’s rebranding from the previous government-private collaboration to the private-led event that it is now, as it aims to become a global Top 5 startup event. With the slogan of ‘WE MOVE THE WORLD’, the event was conducted both on and offline, and had various programs like Academic Conferences (Conference), Open Innovation Strategy of Global Companies (Open Innovation), COMEUP Stars Company Introduction (IR) and Booth Exhibitions, and Business Matching (Biz Matching).