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'Most Funded e-Bike Company In the World' Pauses eBike Sales, Sparking Rumors of Bankruptcy (techcrunch.com) 56

Posted by BeauHD from the more-questions-than-answers dept.
In late 2021, VanMoof claimed to be "the most funded e-bike company in the world" after raising a total of $182 million in the two years prior -- a figure that would later surpass $200 million. Now, according to multiple sources spoken to by TechCrunch, the Dutch e-bike company's strategy and momentum "appear to have steered dangerously off course." From the report: Our sources tell us that VanMoof is working on securing a bridge round that will help it stay afloat. Sources also claim that senior staff, including the CEO and a co-founder, as well as the president (who is also an investor) have left executive roles in the business. The company has refused to provide any on-the-record comment on its status until later this week. But the facts are plain: The company has, as of June 29 and by its own admission, stopped taking orders. VanMoof also filed paperwork, revealed in January, of its need to raise money to stave off bankruptcy.

Customers, annoyed with the pauses and other delays in servicing existing bikes on the road, have turned to social media like Reddit and Twitter to air their complaints and debate whether the company is going bust or not. The first recent, visible cracks in the company appeared in late June when potential customers discovered its online ordering system was no longer working. [...] The story changed again a few days later. In response to TechCrunch's questions about the ordering system, a spokesperson said that the pause was actually intentional (a feature not a bug!). Despite the summer period being the peak season for the cycling market, a VanMoof spokesperson claimed it would be pausing orders to catch up on production and delivery. The company didn't answer any of TechCrunch's multiple questions about why VanMoof was behind on orders (supply chain issues? lacking funds?), what the company's current capacity was, how many orders were outstanding, or when VanMoof hoped to begin sales again. As of the time of publication, the sales pause was going on 12 days.

Despite the pause and the other details, VanMoof had been sending out communications that imply it's business-as-usual at the e-bike company. On June 27 it announced that KwikFit NL, the car maintenance chain, would be a new service partner. The day before that it issued a firmware update and a video was posted of a panel that co-founder Taco Carlier participated in. But there have been a number of warning signs in plain sight for months that tell a different story. [...]
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'Most Funded e-Bike Company In the World' Pauses eBike Sales, Sparking Rumors of Bankruptcy More

'Most Funded e-Bike Company In the World' Pauses eBike Sales, Sparking Rumors of Bankruptcy

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  • There are successful e-bike companies. Hence this is possible to do. This one seems to have been much more adept at getting finding than at making e-bikes...

    • Re:Money is not everything (Score:5, Insightful)

      by dfghjk ( 711126 ) on Tuesday July 11, 2023 @10:00PM (#63678703)

      ...and it showed in their products. They focused far more on cosmetics than function.

      e-bikes are great improvements over conventional bicycles, provided the existing virtues of bicycles are retained. Far too many e-bike companies think a good product is taking a bicycle, making it vastly worse, then adding a motor to make it a little less worse. VanMoof has this disease, only they do it in style.

      • Re:Money is not everything (Score:4, Informative)

        by Deaddy ( 1090107 ) on Wednesday July 12, 2023 @02:45AM (#63679051)

        Also it seems to me they tried to be some kind of apple of ebikes.
        With the exception of the pedal I think all parts where vanmoof exclusive, so it was basically vendor lock from day one.

        • Yep. A bike that requires an app and a monthly subscription to be able to ride? Count me out.

          (Buy you can configure your gear-shift sound!)

      • Actually I disagree. The bike is actually very nice to rid (my brother in law has one). It is very much "high-end" compared to any other e-bike including my own which is little more than a normal bike with a Bosch motor on the undercarriage and a battery under the bag carrier - i.e. most e-bikes on the market. It has very neat interface, good integration with a mobile app, and hardware wise it was a pleasure to ride, almost silent compared to my squeaking piece of shit, stable, and no need to worry about ge

        • I agree with your analysis - good bikes but way too expensive. The big problem with E-Bikes (or any high end bike) is that they are massive targets for theft. It would be like taking four top end iPhones, strapping them together, then locking them to a lamp post in your town with a lock that can be defeated by a $100 battery angle grinder. Within a day you come back and they are gone and the police will say you shouldn't have left them outside.

          I have an e-bike and while I could have (and would have liked to

          • I agree with your analysis - good bikes but way too expensive. The big problem with E-Bikes (or any high end bike) is that they are massive targets for theft.

            Vanmoofs have built-in trackers and a "team" that tracks down any bike that's reported as stolen. If they can't find it? They give you a new bike!

            (assuming you pay the monthly fee, of course...and only if you live in one of a handful of cities)

          • Why not just get a motorcycle if you need two wheeled motorized transportation?

            Bicycles are best left for riding for fun, etc...full manual.

            • Price. You get an e-bike from 1000 euro, while a motor cycle costs 10 times as much.
              License. Every child over 3 years old here in the Netherlands can ride a bicyle. You need a motor cycle driving license to ride a motor bike. That means you need to be 18+ years old, need lessons and to do an exam, which will cost you hundreds of euros at least.
              Convenience. Need to go somewhere, hop on your bicycle and go. No need for helmet, protective clothes. Ride and park it anywhere, even where motorized vehicles are no

              • Price. You get an e-bike from 1000 euro, while a motor cycle costs 10 times as much. License. Every child over 3 years old here in the Netherlands can ride a bicyle. You need a motor cycle driving license to ride a motor bike. That means you need to be 18+ years old, need lessons and to do an exam, which will cost you hundreds of euros at least. Convenience. Need to go somewhere, hop on your bicycle and go. No need for helmet, protective clothes. Ride and park it anywhere, even where motorized vehicles are

                • Dude, you need to get out more. You seem constantly amazed at anything that isn't the exact same as the little bubble you live in.

                  • Dude, you need to get out more. You seem constantly amazed at anything that isn't the exact same as the little bubble you live in.

                    Yes, I am amazed that it seems so regulated, regimented and expensive to live and do even the simplest things in life in other countries that I take for granted living in the US.

                    I have no reason to really leave the US...but I guess I often wrongly assume that in this day in age things are as convenient and cheap to do in most of the western world as it is in the US.

                    • The best part is that having been nowhere else, you feel able draw inferences about how life is elsewhere from the most minor details and still conclude that things are best where you are. Ignorance is bliss, as they say. Reminds me of the Victorian children's book author who wrote about how horrible people were in other countries, even though she had never left her village in England. Guess some things don't change...

          • The big problem with E-Bikes (or any high end bike) is that they are massive targets for theft.

            Actually this isn't a problem. Vanmoofs are very unlikely to be stolen as they are have trackers and a link between the bike software S/N and the previous owner making them easily recoverable and even trackable during theft. Additionally ebikes aren't actually the target you think there are as there's a bit of a reporting issue here. There are plenty of studies which show that e-bikes are 3x more likely to be reported as stolen. *REPORTED* as stolen. e-bikes are expensive, they typically have insurance tied

        • Re:Money is not everything (Score:4, Insightful)

          by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Wednesday July 12, 2023 @05:00AM (#63679249)

          However... It is a Ferrari in a market that doesn't give a shit about Ferrari. It is priced accordingly. My e-bike cost less than 1/2 of my brother in law's vanmoof and it goes just as fast and gets us to the destination at the same time. A commuter bike is a commuter bike.

          That sounds like their core problem: Inaccurate or missing market research. I have seen that a couple of times in startups that then were not around anymore a short time later.

          • Inaccurate or missing market research.

            Market research is also the potential death of innovation, so I wouldn't be so quick to say they got it entirely wrong. Ask anyone in 2006 if they would like a phone that was all glass with no buttons you would have gotten a universal and resounding "fuck no". Actually even after Apple announced the iPhone it was largely dismissed as an impending failure here on Slashdot. Market research would have shown that people expect phones with buttons.

            I agree with you it was a miss, but I don't agree that companies

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by gweihir ( 88907 )

              Sure. Market research alone can definitely not do it. But you need that market research to not run things into the ground because of a mis-sized production and/or R&D budget and effort. If it is missing, you have a very high risk of killing your company economically, see case at hand.

        • However... It is a Ferrari in a market that doesn't give a shit about Ferrari. It is priced accordingly.

          I'd like to disagree. There are plenty of similarly priced brands on the market (or even much more expensive like R+S in Germany; their Homage model is roughly double the price of a Vanmoof S5) that absolutely thrive. Vanmoof bikes are nice, but the only thing that really sets them apart is their unique design. The other manufacturers have bikes that offer similar comfort and features, but use of-the-shelves components that can be repaired or replaced in any bike shop. They also sell in any bike shop; Vanm

          • or even much more expensive like R+S in Germany; their Homage model is roughly double the price of a Vanmoof S5

            Comparing the Homage to the S5 is like comparing a high end SUV to a sedan. They aren't remotely built for the same purpose. The Homage is built like a brick shithouse, the perfect commuter bike if your commute takes you over the mountain on the Isle of Skye. It's like comparing my ruggedized work phone with an iPhone, and yeah my work phone is about 3x the price of an iPhone.

            But yes the rest of your post is quite on point. Vanmoof did have quite the supply chain issues. It took 9months for my brother in la

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by PCM2 ( 4486 )

        ...and it showed in their products. They focused far more on cosmetics than function.

        Quite the opposite. The question is whether all the functions they crammed into their bikes were really practical and worth the cost.

        They also had some subscription programs that similarly seemed less than practical. For example, theft recovery assistance. If you sign up for the program (which isn't particularly expensive, relative to the bike), VanMoof employees will supposedly use GPS to locate your bike and will actually go to recover it for you. If they can't recover it, they'll give you a new bike. Th

  • How does a company burn through $200m making motorised bicycles? Just how? Itâ(TM)s like the investors didnâ(TM)t do any due diligence or followup checks.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by dfghjk ( 711126 )

      Ever heard of Juicero?

    • I can easily see a company blowing through $200m making motorized bicycles, it's just that I'd expect them to have built around 100k of them.

      As for the investors, I figure "bandwagon". Somebody invested who was thought to be careful and all that, not to mention that electric bikes are currently a hot thing in some areas, so more people invested, and it just snowballed from there.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Njovich ( 553857 )

        I can easily see a company blowing through $200m making motorized bicycles, it's just that I'd expect them to have built around 100k of them.

        They sold (and delivered) more than double of that 100k bikes. 200m is easy to blow through, hell you see software companies that could have been run by 10 people without any material or manufacturint blow through those sums.

    • How does a company burn through $200m making motorised bicycles? Just how?

      It's not a "motorised bicycle". People who want one can get one for a fraction of the price. This is a "smart bicycle". Built in bluetooth, charging dock for your phone, automatic security including automatically self unlocking when you get close, theft alarm, wholly integrated battery...

      This isn't a motorised bicycle. It's a two-wheeled Ferrari. And it's priced as such. And it has similar level of demand. The problem is the company was pretending the demand to be more like any other bicycle.

      You can't sell

    • How does a company burn through $200m making motorised bicycles? Just how?

      Hookers and cocaine?

      (aka pretty offices, company cars, and large expense accounts...)

      • (also literally hookers and cocaine via executive bonuses, probably at "execurive accomodation" properties owned or rented at company expense)

    • "How does a company burn through $200m slapping their brand on chinese e-Bikes?"

      There, fixed it for you

  • and most entrepeneurs think that every company can be ran like a VC fintech start up,
    only thinking about their own salary and stock option plan.

  • The new mini-bikes (Score:3)

    by buzz_mccool ( 549976 ) on Tuesday July 11, 2023 @11:45PM (#63678881)
    E-bikes in my neighborhood have taken the place of mini-bikes, those small wheeled gasoline powered bikes of yesteryear. Though much quieter, e-bikes are tearing up the ground in public spaces and zooming around without lights late at night with early teens at the helm just as mini-bikes once did.

    • ...Though much quieter, e-bikes are tearing up the ground in public spaces and zooming around without lights late at night with early teens at the helm just as mini-bikes once did.

      Don't gleam over that initial observation, since it can be considerable.

      With early teens riding gasoline-powered yesteryear, we could at least hear something coming in the distance.

      In e-bike space, no one can hear your Darwin Award.

  • ... they pretend it never happened:

    "Notably, her LinkedIn profile has no mention of VanMoof at all."

    Do women CEOs perform noticeably worse, or is it just that they are more visible?

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by thegarbz ( 1787294 )

      Do women CEOs perform noticeably worse, or is it just that they are more visible?

      Presumably sexist people go out of their way to look them up on LinkedIn in an attempt to manufacture that conclusion. 2144 companies went bankrupt in the Netherlands alone in the past year. Did you look in between the legs of all their CEOs too?

      • Presumably normal, decent people RTFS.

        Try it yourself sometime.

        It will make you look like less of a stupid woke cunt.

        • Presumably normal, decent people RTFS.

          Try it yourself sometime.

          Number of times references to LinkedIn appears in TFS = zero. Number of times women or the CEO's gender is mentioned = zero. Are you so threatened by the existence of women that you make stuff up to try and justify being a sexist thundercunt?

          It will make you look like less of a stupid woke cunt.

          Pointing out a sexist cunt is a sexist cunt doesn't make one woke. You should look up that word in the dictionary sometime, that is if you find time between looking up women on LinkedIn. Go masturbate your sad lonely tears away.

          • "Notably, her LinkedIn profile has no mention of VanMoof at all."

            Asking if women CEOs are shit or just appear to be shit based on recent cases is not sexist, it is a question, you moron.
            The fact-based answer can be Yes, they are shit, or No, they are not, you moron.
            Facts are not sexist, you moron.

            Now fuck off, you stupid, hateful woke cunt. Look that up in the dictionary.

            • "Notably, her LinkedIn profile has no mention of VanMoof at all."

              Why do you keep quoting something that isn't actually in TFS as you claim it is. Are you mentally retarded as well as sexist?

              Now fuck off, you stupid, hateful woke cunt. Look that up in the dictionary.

              LOL stupid: says they person who doesn't know what the summary says, hateful, says the person who told another to fuck off, woke says the person who doesn't understand the word, and cunt ... sorry I'm Australian only my friends get to call me cunt.

              Take your own advice and go hate women somewhere else.

              • Whether you can find it or not, normal people can, and as I did not write this:

                "Notably, her LinkedIn profile has no mention of VanMoof at all."

                your point about me looking on LinkedIn IS BULLSHIT.

                Now fuck off and hate people elsewhere you stupid, hateful woke cunt.

    • That's pretty sad, you'd expect them to be there to try to reboot somethimg after banruptcy to save some of the employee's jobs.

  • ebike companies are essentially importers and marketing. Slap your name and logo on a random Chinese bike and you are now an ebike company. I would have to assume these guys were living large on investor money and getting handsome salaries and business trips until the music stopped
  • Cannondale died from the same massive mistake this company is making. When they decided to make dirtbikes they opted to use no "off the shelf" parts and design and manufacture every part down to the brake levers. It killed them and now it will kill Vanmoof.

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