Is VanMoof about to go poof? Earlier this week, we reported on how the Amsterdam-based e-bike startup, backed by hundreds of millions of dollars in venture funding, was facing a major crisis: a prolonged pause in sales; a barrage of angry customers demanding refunds for their bikes, or complaining about the lack of service on their broken bikes; the departures of key executives; and struggles to raise money to continue operating. Today comes the inevitable follow up: according to a report in the Dutch publication NRC, the company has applied to a local court for an official suspension of payment provision after running out of money.
To be clear, VanMoof is not officially bankrupt with this move: this is a particular scheme in the country that is designed to help a company try to avoid that. It effectively means that VanMoof cannot be forced to pay bills or other money owed, and that any money that it does pay out, and any financial moves it makes at this point (including raising money) will be required to go through court-appointed administrators for approval.
It can be in place for up to 18 months, and during that time VanMoof has time to restructure its business and look for new investment.
If it doesn’t find a way ahead in that time, it then files for bankruptcy.
NRC reports that employees will be officially told about the state of the company today, and that the court will officially announce the suspension Thursday.
In the meantime, the company has closed all of its retail stores and appears to have halted all other activity, including its bike servicing.
As we detailed in our story earlier this week, one of the main issues with VanMoof’s bikes is that they are custom designed from the ground up, including being tightly integrated with the VanMoof app.
The first of these means it’s virtually impossible for anyone to repair a VanMoof bike themselves or take it to a local bike shop to get it fixed. The second of these means that if the company does go bust and fails to find a buyer for the assets, the bikes already out in the world — if they are not already broken — lose all their connected functionality (although it appears that there is a way to continue riding it, as a very expensive electric fixie).
The company has been facing a huge backlash for this model, not least because its bikes appear to be less than robust. As we reported earlier this week, one in 10 bikes last year were returned after purchase, and the company was losing money on bikes based on the costs of repairs of those that remained in people’s ownership.
And as for those repairs, this reddit post, allegedly from a former employee at the company’s Los Angeles outpost, paints a damning picture of how badly that business was run.
We’ve reached out to the company for a response and will update this story as we learn more.
Report: e-bike startup VanMoof, unable to pay its bills, files for payment deferment in Holland by Ingrid Lunden originally published on TechCrunch
