From eVTOL to business jets, a domestic flight control system supplier raises tens of millions of yuan in another round of financing | Exclusive from 36Kr

Text | Lin Qingqing

Editor | Yuan Silai

36Kr learned that "Boundary Intelligence Control", a supplier of high - safety - level flight control systems for civil aviation, recently completed a Series A+ financing of tens of millions of yuan. The lead investor was Yida Capital, and the follow - on investors included Xuhui Science and Technology Innovation Investment, Lianjie Qichen, and existing shareholder Qianhai Honghui. The funds from this round of financing will be used for technology R & D, support for airworthiness certification, and the construction of mass - production capabilities.

Founded in 2020, "Boundary Intelligence Control" focuses on the R & D of flight control and autonomous driving computing and control platforms for civil electric aviation. It provides high - safety flight control solutions for electric vertical take - off and landing aircraft (eVTOL), business jets, and civil airliners. The company conducts R & D following the forward - design process in accordance with the requirements of civil aviation airworthiness standards, and builds full - process capabilities covering R & D, airworthiness certification, and mass - production delivery. It is one of the few domestic flight control suppliers that can meet the high - safety - level requirements of civil aviation.

The global aviation industry is accelerating its transformation towards carbon neutrality and intelligence. According to the prediction of the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, Ltd. (COMAC), the delivery volume of civil airliners in China will exceed 9,000 from 2023 to 2042. Data from Markets and Markets shows that the scale of China's electric aviation market may reach 49.9 billion yuan in 2030. As the "brain" of an aircraft, the flight control system in the field of high - safety - level and airworthy civil products has long been monopolized by international manufacturers such as Honeywell, Collins Aerospace, and BAE. Domestic aircraft manufacturers face pain points such as technology export controls and poor airworthiness of domestic alternative solutions. The demand for lightweight, low - cost, and intelligent features in emerging fields such as eVTOL further exacerbates the pressure on the industrial chain.

The core product of "Boundary Intelligence Control" is the REG300 series of triple - redundant and dual - channel flight control systems. It conducts software and hardware development, testing, and verification in accordance with standards such as ARP4754A, DO - 178C, DO - 254, and DO - 160G to meet the compliance review requirements of airworthiness regulations. It can be adapted to various configurations such as multi - rotor, compound - wing, tilt - rotor, and fixed - wing aircraft. It provides customers with flight control systems and supporting test environments, and supports the entire airworthiness certification process of aircraft models from planning, design, development, verification to approval, meeting the safety and airworthiness requirements of manned and passenger - carrying eVTOL models and other future civil aviation models for flight control systems. Weng Haimin, the founder and CEO, said, "We entered the market through eVTOL, filling the gap in high - safety - level flight control system products, and gradually extending to traditional civil aviation to contribute to the development of the aviation industry."

Specifically, the REG300 flight control system consists of three independent flight control computers. The three computers run simultaneously and conduct real - time cross - verification. Each computer contains two instruction and monitoring channels with non - similar design schemes. It conducts voting on input data, monitors output data, and has self - diagnosis functions for the flight control computer, which can support reaching the DAL - B level and support the airworthiness certification of large eVTOLs. Each flight control computer runs highly reliable redundancy management algorithms and channel fault management algorithms, which can handle downgrade strategies in various failure states to ensure safety.

In addition to the R & D of the product itself, "Boundary Intelligence Control" has also developed a series of test environments supporting the flight control system. Based on the top - level requirements of aircraft manufacturers, it can conduct integrated testing and simulation verification on the REG300 flight control computer equipment and its software and hardware, and simultaneously carry out work such as confirmation and verification, configuration management, and safety assessment to ensure the compliance of product development with top - level requirements and the correctness of the solution.

In addition to the R & D of products and supporting verification environments, "Boundary Intelligence Control" has built a complete set of development environments through independent R & D. It has established a design assurance system in accordance with the airworthiness management requirements of civil aviation components. At the same time, it has also obtained the AS9100D aerospace quality management system certification issued by the globally authoritative certification body, the National Quality Assurance Limited (NQA) of the UK.

In 2023, the flight control system of "Boundary Intelligence Control" completed its maiden flight on the 2 - ton eVTOL model of Volant. Now it has entered the airworthiness certification stage with this model. Currently, the company's customers include several aircraft manufacturers such as Volant, EWATT, GAC, and Tianlingke. In addition to eVTOL, the company's products have extended to civil aircraft models such as electric business jets and have established cooperation with domestic traditional aviation enterprises.

Currently, the challenges faced by the industry focus on improving product maturity and obtaining airworthiness certification. Weng Haimin admitted, "Flight control R & D involves more than a dozen professional fields. The team needs long - term running - in to eliminate knowledge blind spots. The entire development process is a highly complex systems engineering project, which requires large investment and a long cycle." To this end, "Boundary Intelligence Control" strengthens its platform - based capabilities, improves the standardization and generalization of products, optimizes the tool chain to increase the automation level in the development and verification process, and accelerates the R & D and airworthiness of flight control systems.

In terms of the team, "Boundary Intelligence Control" has assembled a professional team of nearly 100 people in Shenzhen and Shanghai. Among them, there are many technical experts with experience in the development of airworthy aircraft models and core subsystems such as COMAC's C919 project. The proportion of R & D personnel exceeds 80%. The company has completed four rounds of financing in four years since its establishment. The investors include well - known institutions such as Sequoia Capital China, Cornerstone Capital, and Puhua Capital. It is an upstream core equipment supplier with a leading financing scale in the low - altitude economy track.