Joby Aviation reached an agreement to acquire Resonant Sciences for $500 million in cash and stock, according to a regulatory filing posted Tuesday. This is the electric air taxi developer’s latest move to push deeper into the defense sector.
Ohio-based Resonant Sciences, which makes radio frequency and sensor systems, will become a dedicated defense business under Joby. Resonant Sciences’ co-founder and CEO J. Micah North will lead this new division, which will absorb Joby’s defense projects, including the development of a turbine-electric and hydrogen-electric aircraft, and autonomy technology stack.
The new defense division will allow the rest of Joby Aviation to focus on certifying, manufacturing, and launching its electric air taxi, the company said.
California-based Joby is best known as a company trying to develop and launch a network of electric urban air taxis that can shuttle people and goods over short distances. The company has also pursued defense, an effort that became more public over the past two years.
Last year, Joby signed an agreement with defense contractor L3Harris Technologies to “explore opportunities” to develop a new aircraft class — specifically, a gas-turbine hybrid vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft that can fly autonomously — for defense applications.
The gas-turbine hybrid VTOL will be based on Joby’s current S4 aircraft platform, the company said at the time. Joby has focused on developing the S4 with an all-electric powertrain, but in 2024 it demonstrated under a government contract a hydrogen-electric hybrid version that flew 521 miles — more than two times farther than its battery-electric prototype.
Joby’s acquisition of Resonant Sciences gives it a money-making business. Resonant has reported $100 million in trailing 12-month revenue, and access to classified programs run by the U.S. government. Resonant’s radio frequency and sensing tech also complements Joby’s own electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOLs).
Joby has tapped this revenue-generation-through-acquisition strategy before. Developing, certifying, and mass-producing eVTOLs is an expensive and years-long process, the kind of frontier tech that excites shareholders until they start wondering when the money is going to come in.
Joby, which went public in 2021 through a merger with a blank-check company, has assuaged investors by finding near-term sources of revenue.
Last year, Joby acquired Blade Air Mobility’s helicopter rideshare business for about $125 million. The acquisition gave Joby instant access to a network of 12 terminals in key markets like New York City as well as terminal bases at John F. Kennedy International Airport, Newark Liberty Airport, on both east and west sides of Manhattan, and Wall Street.
It also delivered much-needed revenue for Joby. The company reported $38.6 million in revenue in the second quarter, $36.2 million of which came from Blade.
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