The ultimate chapter within the VanMoof monetary saga has been written this morning. The e-bike maker has formally filed for chapter.

The transfer was first reported by Thomas Ricker in The Verge, citing an inner e mail despatched by VanMoof cofounders and brothers Taco and Ties Carlier informing firm workers of the choice. The complete textual content of the e-mail is seen under.

Solely final week, VanMoof had entered right into a court-administered “suspension of cost” that was meant to provide the corporate time to seek out adequate funds to keep away from submitting for chapter. The week earlier than it had suspended gross sales, marking the primary main signal {that a} chapter may very well be imminent.

Now in an obvious indication that it might not be attainable to save lots of the corporate through the suspension of cost interval, its cofounders have filed for chapter within the Netherlands. Worldwide VanMoof operations will not be at present in insolvency, and their future stays murky.

It’s nonetheless attainable {that a} purchaser steps ahead to buy VanMoof’s property, together with its wealth of mental property. VanMoof’s extremely tech-forward designs helped differentiate the corporate from cookie-cutter electrical bike competitors, but in addition proved to be its Achilles’ heel when these difficult techniques resulted in expensive servicing in addition to supply-chain/manufacturing complications.

The interior e mail saying the chapter to workers will be seen under:

Expensive all,

During the last weeks Ties and I’ve tried to discover a future for VanMoof. We’re extraordinarily sorry to must report that regardless of our greatest efforts we didn’t succeed and we’ve got needed to file for chapter. The directors, who at the moment are the trustees, will clarify under what this implies for you, however we wish to take a really temporary second to thanks all from the underside of our hearts.

We began VanMoof 14 years in the past with a loopy thought to alter the world. The one purpose that we have been capable of make a dent is due to you: the lots of of devoted and dependable those who have helped us with our mission to alter cities for the higher. We’re grateful to each certainly one of you and we’re sorry that we will be unable to see this mission via collectively.

We really feel unhappiness, however most of all we really feel an immense sense of delight for what we’ve got achieved collectively. For us it’s been the honour of a lifetime and though the present iteration of VanMoof ends at this time and we don’t but know what the longer term holds, I’m assured that the VanMoof alumni will proceed to be a pressure for good.

With the kindest of regards,

Taco and Ties Carlier 

The way forward for present VanMoof e-bikes at present owned by clients can also be in query. These high-tech e-bikes depend on the VanMoof app to be unlocked, although a key code will be generated by the app to unlock the bikes even with out the telephone being current.

Rival e-bike firm Cowboy created a brand new app that will permit VanMoof homeowners to regenerate codes for his or her bikes, and different e-bike firms at the moment are providing trade-ins for VanMoof e-bikes.

Electrek’s Take

It is a unhappy day for the e-bike business. No matter what you considered VanMoof’s bikes themselves, it’s by no means good to see a significant participant fall. Ripples shall be felt all through the business.

It might be a wake-up name concerning the risks of being locked into a very technical answer, but it surely doesn’t imply low-tech e-bike firms are protected from the pitfalls of overproduction or poor cash-flow planning both.

Hopefully VanMoof’s chapter can stay an remoted case, however I do fear that a number of different e-bike firms at present navigating rocky waters could also be one small storm away from catastrophe.

FTC: We use revenue incomes auto affiliate hyperlinks. Extra.