VanMoof, the Dutch e-bike maker that gained an enthusiastic following but declared bankruptcy last month, has been acquired by Lavoie, an upscale electric scooter company, the companies announced Thursday.
Riders of the expensive and technologically advanced VanMoof bikes were left in limbo due to the company’s bankruptcy, as the machines were made from proprietary parts that were only manufactured by the company and many of the functions of bicycles is linked to a smartphone app running on the company’s servers. Despite the buzz around the brand, VanMoof ran into financial problems that led to a production backlog and months-long waits for sales and repairs.
But riders won’t be completely out of limbo under new ownership. “What they can’t expect in the first two weeks are definitive answers to problems,” said Nick Fry, the chairman of McLaren Applied, the British motorsports technology company that owns Lavoie.
The acquisition price was not disclosed, but Mr. Fry said Lavoie would spend “tens of millions” on the transaction as well as investments in the coming months to “correct some of the challenges we face.”
“It’s not going to be a walk in the park,” he said. “It’s going to be a challenge.”
One of the new owner’s priorities, he added, is improving the availability of parts and repairs, something that has been increasingly difficult for VanMoof owners. Regular bike shops can’t – or sometimes won’t – fix bikes.
Mr. Fry said he wants other bike mechanics to repair VanMoof bikes and maybe make the bikes available for sale at retailers other than brand-owned stores.
Another priority, he said, is to address some of the reliability issues that plague the bikes.
“It broke a lot,” Johan Alderden, a VanMoof owner from the Dutch town of Aalsmeer, said this summer after news of the bankruptcy broke. But echoing many other owners, Mr. Alderden said “if it works, it’s awesome.”
It’s unclear what will happen to customers who paid for VanMoof bikes but hadn’t received them by the time the company went bankrupt, Mr. Fry said, adding that it’s “not something we can reach an agreement with the former owner.”
Lavoie recently started selling a high-end electric scooterscosting more than $2,000, based on Formula 1 technologies developed by its parent company.
VanMoof, founded in 2009 by two brothers, Ties and Taco Carlier, tripled its sales during the pandemic and raised more than $180 million in funding. The bikes’ design places the battery inside the frame, which helps protect it from rain and thieves, and gives VanMoof bikes their signature streamlined look.
As the e-bike market developed, the company sold about 200,000 bikes for upwards of $2,000 each, and opened stores across Europe, the United States and Japan. In the e-bike world, VanMoof is often compared to Apple or Tesla, due to its elegant designs, heavy use of custom materials and premium prices.
“VanMoof and Lavoie are a perfect fit,” Eliott Wertheimer, chief executive of Lavoie, said in a statement. (Lavoie became compared to Apple for the sleek, high-tech engineering of its scooters.) For VanMoof owners around the world, Mr. Wertheimer said he wants to “keep those riders on the road.”
