JoeBen Bevirt, founder and CEO of Joby Aviation, stands in front of a prototype of its five-seat … [+]
NYSE
Electric air taxi startups are at least a few years from picking up their first passengers, but the sector has minted its first billionaire: Joby Aviation founder and CEO JoeBen Bevirt.
Shares in the Santa Cruz, Calif.-based company, which commenced trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Aug. 11 following a reverse merger, closed 5.8% higher Tuesday at $10.90, giving the company a market capitalization of $6.8 billion, and Bevirt, 47, a fortune worth $1.08 billion given SEC filings that list him as controlling 98.7 million shares.
It’s a heady milestone for Bevirt, who’s been working since 2009 to develop an aircraft that can take off and land vertically like a helicopter in tight urban environments and transition to flying efficiently on wings like an airplane, with the…