Rad Power Bikes goes to auction for $13.2M

Electric bike company Rad Power Bikes has reached an agreement to sell itself to a company called Life Electric Vehicles Holdings (or Life EV) for about $13.2 million, just over a month ago. after entering the bankruptcy process.

Florida-based Life EV bills itself as a “designer, manufacturer, and distributor in the light electric industry.” He offers several electric scooters for sale on his website, although many of them were listed as “sold” at the time of publication.

A reservation to the bankruptcy docket at the end of the week shows that five organizations participated in the sale of Rad Power assets on January 22. The first amount came at $ 8 million, and the parties traded until Life Electric Vehicles won. Counting Rad Power’s debts, the total value of the business is $14.9 million.

Another e-bike company called Retrospec had the second highest bid of $13 million and is called a “backup bidder” if the deal with Life EV fails. The bid was less than Rad Power’s $1.65 billion asking price, due in October 2021, per PitchBook. The company has raised $329.2 million in funding, according to PitchBook data.

The acquisition still needs to be approved by a bankruptcy judge.

Rad Power is not the only micromobility company in the world to seek bankruptcy protection in recent years. Friends like VanMoof and Keke also went through renovations and found new owners. Scooter Bird also went through a bankruptcy process.

It’s unclear what Life EV plans to do with Rad Power; Life EV CEO Robert Provost directed questions to Rad Power. “There is still no way in progress and there is an exciting future in store for Rad Power,” he wrote in a message.

TechCrunch could not reach Rad Power for comment; This article will be updated if the company responds.

Like many of its peers, Rad Power saw a significant increase in sales during the pandemic but struggled as the boom ended.

The company has faced several challenges in recent years, juggled CEOs, and most recently had problems with its old batteries catching fire. The Consumer Product Safety Commission found 31 reported fires related to batteries.

Rad Power told TechCrunch at the time that it “stands behind our batteries and our reputation as leaders in the e-bike industry, and strongly opposes the CPSC’s characterization of some Rad batteries as harmless or unsafe.”