VanMoof receives new investment after concerns about the company’s survival – Sound and Vision – News

Dutch e-bike manufacturer VanMoof has received a new capital injection from its shareholders. According to the company, this was not an unnecessary luxury: without this investment, the company would have run into problems after two months.

After questions from Het Financieele Dagblad, a VanMoof spokesman said that the company had to appeal to its shareholders, although the spokesperson does not want to say how much money the investors have invested and whether it concerns equity capital or whether they have provided loans. . The newspaper writes that the preliminary annual report for 2021 states that the company has held talks with investors and suppliers to deposit between 10 and 40 million euros.

The FD writes that VanMoof acknowledges in the preliminary annual report for 2021 and the accompanying management report that describes the situation up to December 29 last year that new money is needed, because otherwise doubts could arise “about the company’s ability to continue its activities beyond the first quarter of 2023.” The annual accounts are preliminary and therefore not yet signed, because the accountant refused to do so because of ‘material uncertainty’ about the search for new investments. The newspaper also writes that the annual report shows that VanMoof must pay close attention to expenditure. The company has asked suppliers if it can pay invoices later in order to have enough cash in hand until the new capital injection is completed.

Only the incumbent investors now appear to have actually invested money in VanMoof. These include London-based venture capital firm Balderton Capital and Chinese private equity firm Hillhouse Investment. The latter company took over the Philips home appliances division in 2021. Both Balderton and Hillhouse were already part of an investment round in September 2021 in which VanMoof raised a total of $ 128 million. Balderton also invested money in the bicycle manufacturer a year earlier.

The company has expanded rapidly in recent years. For example, stores were opened in all kinds of European cities, in Tokyo and in New York. As a result, turnover rose sharply, but the rapid growth was also accompanied by significant losses. Last year there was a loss of 78 million euros and that was also the case in 2021. According to the FD, this means that VanMoof is rapidly passing through the approximately 200 million euros that the company raised from investors in recent years.

Another reason mentioned for the current financial situation is the problems with the bicycles, such as a relatively high number of defects and long waiting times for repairs. As a result, the manufacturer had to set aside 8 million euros in 2021. One reason for the long waiting times for repairs is that customers cannot go to a regular bicycle repair shop; VanMoof only uses its own parts.

VanMoof was founded in 2009 by the Carlier brothers, although the operational management of the company has been in the hands of Gillian Tans, the former CEO of Booking.com, since last year. The manufacturer is known for minimalist, relatively expensive e-bike models, such as the S5 and the A5 that were introduced a year ago. These then had a suggested retail price of just under 2500 euros.