World's "most properly funded e-bike model" VanMoof goes bankrupt

Pioneering electrical bicycle producer VanMoof was declared bankrupt within the Netherlands on Monday by the Amsterdam District Courtroom, following the corporate’s pandemic-time growth.

VanMoof’s court-assigned directors are actually trying into whether or not the Dutch firm might be restructured or bought in order that it will probably proceed operations within the Netherlands.

Identified for promoting glossy high-end bikes with built-in theft safety, VanMoof is among the most distinguished electrical bicycle firms on the planet, usually dubbed the “Tesla of e-bikes”.

The corporate has outposts in 20 cities across the globe – throughout Germany, France, England, Japan and the US – however solely its Dutch operations are concerned within the insolvency proceedings.

The information comes three years after the corporate tripled its gross sales in 2020, buoyed by the pandemic biking growth.

A yr later, VanMoof raised $128 million in funding, declaring itself “the world’s fastest-growing and most well-funded e-bike model”.

“The extra bicycles VanMoof sells, the larger the loss”

The chapter announcement has led some information retailers, together with British newspaper The Telegraph, to forecast the top of the bicycle growth.

However whereas it is true that e-bike gross sales within the UK decreased by three per cent final yr because of the mounting price of dwelling disaster, statistics counsel that gross sales throughout the remainder of Europe proceed to develop within the double digits, changing the demand for handbook bicycles.

In keeping with Dutch monetary newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad, VanMoof’s monetary troubles are right down to the outsized prices of producing and repairing its e-bikes, which consist of varied patented components that can not be fastened by or changed in a daily bike store.

The related prices truly outweigh the corporate’s earnings, the paper discovered, leading to a gross margin lack of €11.9 million.

“That factors to a elementary downside,” the outlet declared earlier this yr. “The extra bicycles VanMoof sells, the larger the loss.”

Worldwide entities to remain “working as typical”

The corporate stopped accepting new on-line orders a number of weeks in the past, in addition to halting the sale and supply of spare components. All restore appointments within the Netherlands have been suspended.

Nonetheless, the corporate claimed in an announcement that its bikes “will stay useful and rideable, as we purpose to maintain our app and servers on-line and purpose to safe the continued companies for the long run”.

It’s at the moment unsure how the chapter will have an effect on VanMoof’s worldwide entities, though the corporate says the purpose is to maintain them “working as typical”.

VanMoof was initially based by Dutch brothers Taco and Ties Carlier in 2009, with a design by Sjoerd Smit that featured an aluminium body and solar-powered lights.

The corporate shortly rose to reputation with its flagship fashions S2 and X2, which have been longlisted for a 2019 Dezeen Award and totalled 2,500 on-line orders within the first 24 hours.