Kitekraft
About
About Kitekraft
Kitekraft develops airborne wind-energy systems in which a tethered electric aircraft flies repeated crosswind patterns. Small onboard turbines generate electricity during flight and send it down a conductive tether to a ground station, which can supply a battery or feed the grid.
The ground station also launches, lands and parks the kite, enabling autonomous transitions between hover and power-producing figure-eight flight. Kitekraft completed a grid-connected flight sequence in Germany in 2023, including power export to the public network. The company is progressing from a five-kilowatt demonstrator toward larger systems intended to use less structural material and reach stronger winds at altitude.
Funding
- 2022-12-08 - Venture and grant financing - $1.6M - Kitekraft raises $1.6 million for grid-connected demonstrator
Kitekraft raised $1.6 million to move its flying-wind-turbine technology from prototype testing to a grid-connected demonstrator. - source: kitekraft.de
Investors
- Schweizer Kapital Global Impact Fund AG - Lead - VC - 1 funding event - first seen 2022-12-08
Team
- Maximilian Isensee - Founder - Leads commercial development and energy-market work.
- Christoph Drexler - Co-Founder - Connects technical development with business development.
- André Frirdich - Founder
- Florian Stappenbeck (Bauer) - Founder - Leads flight controls, electrical engineering and system reliability.
Timeline
Events
- 2023-11-02 - Capability - Kitekraft completes first grid-fed autonomous power flight
The test covered grid-powered hover launch, transition into figure-eight flight, airborne power generation, return to hover and landing. The kite and ground station operated autonomously apart from high-level launch and land commands. Kitekraft had also completed more than 100 autonomous docking and undocking cycles at the test site.
Source - 2023-10-06 - Deployment - Kitekraft connects flying wind turbine demonstrator to public grid
Bayernwerk Netz approved the connection after the system demonstrated compliance with applicable grid rules. The initial connection provides 30 kW of approved capacity for autonomous flight tests and energy feed-in. Gemeindewerke Oberhaching agreed to purchase electricity generated during the demonstrator flights.
Source - 2022-12-08 - Funding - Kitekraft raises $1.6 million for grid-connected demonstrator
Roughly $300,000 of the package came through the Horizon Europe MERIDIONAL project. The capital was allocated to reliability and efficiency work, a grid-connected demonstrator, team growth and preparation for a pilot installation.
Source
Relations
Relationships
- Bayernwerk Netz GmbH
Grid Connection Partner - Bayernwerk Netz approved and supported Kitekraft's 30 kW public-grid connection for its airborne-wind demonstrator.
Context
Comparable profiles
- Seaflight Technologies
stack adjacency - Autonomous Flight
- Airhart Aeronautics
stack adjacency - Autonomous Flight
- REGENT
stack adjacency - Autonomous Flight
Shared workflows
- Rocket Lab
workflow adjacency - Aerospace Autonomy Innovation
- Lockheed Martin
workflow adjacency - Aerospace Autonomy Innovation
- Hop Aero
workflow adjacency - Aerospace Autonomy Innovation
- Spaceium
workflow adjacency - Aerospace Autonomy Innovation
- Cascade Space
workflow adjacency - Aerospace Autonomy Innovation
- Navier AI
workflow adjacency - Aerospace Autonomy Innovation
- Basalt
workflow adjacency - Aerospace Autonomy Innovation
- Inversion Space
workflow adjacency - Aerospace Autonomy Innovation
- Reditus Space
workflow adjacency - Aerospace Autonomy Innovation
- Wardstone
workflow adjacency - Aerospace Autonomy Innovation
- HEO
workflow adjacency - Aerospace Autonomy Innovation
- Quindar
workflow adjacency - Aerospace Autonomy Innovation
Context tags
- Aerospace autonomy innovation - Workflow - Korthos context supports Aerospace autonomy innovation.
- Autonomous flight - Capability - Korthos context supports Autonomous flight.