VanMoof Goes Bankrupt: Act Now to Avoid E-Waste
VanMoof has not only stopped the sale of bicycles and spare parts but has also officially confirmed its insolvency. At the end of the article, you will find the original statement from VanMoof. And besides, you should definitely secure the digital bike key of your VanMoof bike now. You can read how to do this in the article linked below.
July 18th update: Added an official statement from the company at the end of the page.
VanMoof suspends sales of e-bikes and accessories
Anyone who regularly visits nextpit will probably have come across one or more e-bike reviews. Most recently, our colleague Ben took the Cowboy Cruiser out for a spin and reported about it. However, we have also extensively reviewed e-bikes from the Dutch company known as VanMoof:
- Worth taking a look: VanMoof S3 review
- Or check out the VanMoof S5 review
Since a few days ago, VanMoof seemed to face issues with new e-bike sales. In other words, it is no longer selling them to interested buyers, and neither are they putting up their accessories for sale. One would naturally assume that the company has run into production issues and delivery challenges.
However, the underlying issue seems to run deeper than that, no thanks to the 2021 year-end report that pointed out how the Dutch company has secured financing only until spring. In other words, the company's coffers have apparently run dry and new investors are urgently needed.
Heated discussions have also erupted on the social news aggregator Reddit as to whether the company is on the verge of bankruptcy. This would have serious consequences for existing customers, as that means you would no longer be able to obtain spare parts from third-party manufacturers, especially when it comes to their e-bikes.
Rumored internal statement from VanMoof
An alleged VanMoof employee contributed to the animated conversation with a written statement. The content explicitly stated that the company is not going bankrupt. Rather, there are technical problems that need to be solved and sales will resume soon.
One of our inquiries remained unanswered so far, but we do understand that our message might have gone unnoticed due to the weekend. We will update this post as soon as we obtain new information on the matter.
July 18th update
VanMoof released the following statement today. As a result, the bicycle manufacturer is insolvent:
On 17 July 2023, the court of Amsterdam withdrew the suspension of payment proceeding of the Dutch legal entities VanMoof Global Holding B.V., VanMoof B.V. and VanMoof Global Support B.V. and declared these entities bankrupt.
The two administrators Mr. Padberg and Mr. De Wit have been appointed as trustees. The trustees are continuing to assess the situation at VanMoof and are investigating the possibilities of a re-start out of bankruptcy by means of an asset sale to a third party, so that the activities of VanMoof can be continued.
The VanMoof legal entities outside the Netherlands are not in insolvency proceedings.
There will be no further comments at this time.
This makes it all the more important that you secure the digital bike key of your VanMoof bike as soon as possible. Because if VanMoof shuts down its servers at some point, you won't be able to get to this key–and your bike will become an expensive and impractical paperweight. Here you can read how to secure the digital key of your VanMoof bike.
Are any of you owners of a VanMoof e-bike? You are welcome to share your thoughts in the comments.
VM has had a big problem with bike and software unreliability with so many irate customers that VM pulled the plug on its customer service telephone line. Lack of local service points means shipping defective bikes back to Utrecht. OK if you live in NL but not so good from other parts of the world. This has gobbled up any profits and costs management time. Shiny marketing and grubby product mismatch will lead to bankruptcy. Only the owners will walk away with sacks full of cash.