/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25175884/IMG20230507180027.jpeg?w=1200&resize=1200,628&ssl=1 "VanMoof 2.0: a new hope")
“Impressed,” is the word I keep coming back to after meeting with the new leadership of VanMoof, a company that helped popularize electric bikes before abruptly declaring bankruptcy this summer.
I was impressed by Elliot Wertheimer and Nick Fry’s symbiotic relationship, impressed by their zeal to keep existing VanMoof riders on the road, and impressed by their plan to gradually restart the VanMoof machine and expand into more areas of e-mobility.
I met with Wertheimer and his corporate chaperone Fry in London last week to discuss VanMoof’s future, at a time when some 200,000 riders have been left without components or service centers for their sophisticated e-bikes built with proprietary parts.
This isn’t another Kodak situation, I’m happy to report, where the VanMoof brand would be squeezed until it’s all but worthless. “It’s super important to us to retain what VanMoof was,” says Wertheimer. “So product engineering, product design, tech development is still in-house, fully. We have not outsourced it and we will not outsource any of that.”
Still, as impressive as everything sounds, it’s all talk for now. The first real test of the new company will begin soon.
The launch of VanMoof 2.0 involves a staggered rollout of replacement parts to retailers with in-house repair shops, a resumption of e-bike sales, and a new VanMoof-branded e-scooter in the first half of 2024… in that order, if all goes as planned. Key European markets are the initial focus.
The US remains a priority for VanMoof but timings there are less certain. The VanMoof legal entity in the US never declared bankruptcy and the operations there are undergoing restructuring alongside creditors. Wertheimer’s VanMoof is the legal owner of the US entity, but it’s being treated as a one-off compared to the rest of the company with its own unique timelines for a 2.0 launch.
Elliot Wertheimer (31) is the kitesurfing co-CEO of Lavoie with a background in aerospace engineering, while co-CEO Albert Nassar has a background in robotics — the two founded Furosystems e-bikes before joining McLaren Applied in an acquihire. Nick Fry (67) is the charismatic Chairman of McLaren Applied, and has largely been the face of the deal to buy the dregs of VanMoof after its demise. Fry is very much the “adult in the room,” as I’d call it, with a storied Formula One background where he led multiple F1 teams, including Mercedes.
But don’t confuse McLaren Group and its supercars with McLaren Applied, the tech division purchased by the UK-based private equity firm Greybull Capital in 2021. It was Greybull that appointed Fry into his current position at McLaren Applied, which focuses on delivering electrification, connectivity, telemetry, control, and analytic solutions for a range of vehicles, from motorsports to public transport and now, micromobility solutions.
The takeaway from my meeting with VanMoof’s new leadership is this: the company has a long runway to turn things around and plenty of seasoned executives and engineering resources to help it be successful. But it’s absolute priority right now is keeping riders on the road.
Greybull has deep pockets which means there’s no hurry for VanMoof to turn a profit. And because of the bankruptcy, the new leadership isn’t saddled with having to repay any of the substantial debt accumulated by VanMoof in recent years.
“It’ll take three years minimum before we start to see the thing has its head above the water,” says Fry of the VanMoof relaunch. “We’re not rushing into this. We’re going to go at a sensible pace.”
That also means significant investments, well beyond the €900,000 initial cash payment to the trustees and lawyers revealed in bankruptcy documents. The team is testing each part for quality, and it’s in the process of honoring a commitment to buy back inventories of components and bikes in various stages of assembly. As such, Fry and his Greybull backers expect to invest “tens of millions” into VanMoof before seeing any profit.
It also has salaries to pay. Lavoie quickly expanded from about 30 to over 130 employees after hiring back about 100 (of about 700) former VanMoof workers critical to the continuity of business, the majority of whom still live in Amsterdam where Wertheimer is preparing to relocate.
VanMoof founders Ties and Taco Carlier, who did have an advisory role early on, are no longer actively involved with the company. Wertheimer and Fry are exceedingly complimentary of the two brothers and what they were able to achieve, including making steady improvement in overall quality.
“To be honest, I like the SA5,” says Wertheimer, referring to the most recent S5 and A5 flagship e-bikes sold by VanMoof. “I mean I looked at the data — it’s a really reliable bike. It’s very solid. They did amazing work on that and it’s really, I think, what they were aiming for. In terms of timing, they got unlucky.”
“In 20 years time, when the history of VanMoof is being written, I hope that the brothers get the credit they deserve,” adds Fry.
Still, with hindsight, it’s clear that while the Carlier brothers showed great skill at launching something from scratch, they were ill-equipped to steer VanMoof through a pandemic and global economic downturn that caused cheap investor capital to dry up. “Entrepreneurs take ridiculous risks, they’re inspirational — but they’re often not good at operating,” concedes Fry. “In so many cases it then gets handed on to people like me who would never ever do the first piece, because that’s not our thing. But we can do the second piece.”
“Keeping riders on the road is top priority,” says Wertheimer, not once, but five times during our two-plus hours together. And that means two things: the availability of spare parts and the launch of a new network of retailers — aka, certified bike shops — that can also service VanMoof e-bikes.
So, in Q1, and starting sooner rather than later, VanMoof will be launching a new parts and retailer network with an initial emphasis on meeting the majority of riders where they live. That means spinning-up a new network of third-party certified bike shops located in big cities across the Netherlands, Germany, and the UK, initially.
“We are looking at improving some key parts and components that needed to be improved, not only just from a reliability perspective, but also from the standpoint of mechanics,” says Wertheimer. The team is focused on making VanMoof e-bikes easier to service in order to avoid the long wait times that have historically plagued VanMoof riders. Wertheimer says the goal is, “to make sure that a workshop can fix your bike in 20 minutes, not three hours.”
The majority of VanMoof e-bikes on the road are S3 and X3 models, so those parts are the priority. But VanMoof’s bikes are made from hundreds of custom parts. “I think there are 400 SKUs,” says Wertheimer. “We’re focusing on the most important ones, about 20 to 30. And then we’re going to ramp up progressively on the rest.” VanMoof batteries and e-shifters are on that priority list, as the company continues to push out firmware updates to fix any known bugs.
Parts will only be available via the new retailer network for the foreseeable future. And while existing VanMoof e-bike warranties have gone poof with the bankruptcy, Wertheimer says “we’re going to supply those parts at preferential rates to retailers,” and launch its own warranty program at the same time. But if you want your VanMoof e-bike serviced, you have to go to one of the certified bike shops, assuming one exists close by, which can then analyze the problem and recommend a solution. DIY solutions might come later.
“We do not want to be in servicing anymore,” says Wertheimer. “I think they tried with a lot of great intentions, but it is too difficult to do it for yourself.”
Once the parts are available through a properly trained network of local bike shops, VanMoof plans to again start selling e-bikes from its existing catalog. SX3 models will not be sold, but SA5s seem likely — Wertheimer would not commit to any models, though. Initially, new VanMoof e-bikes will only be available to buy from the new retailer network, but direct-to-consumer sales from the VanMoof website could return in areas where a local network of certified workshops exist. “We will not sell bikes in Timbuktu,” says Wertheimer.
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