More than a month after filing for bankruptcy, electric bike company Rad Power Bikes has reached a deal to sell itself to a company called Life Electric Vehicles Holdings (or Life EV) for about $13.2 million.
Florida-based Life EV describes itself as a “developer, manufacturer, and distributor for the light electric vehicle industry.” The company’s website has a large number of electric bikes for sale, but at the time of publication, most of them were listed as “sold out.”
Five companies participated in the Jan. 22 auction of Rad Power’s assets, according to bankruptcy filings over the weekend. The initial bid was $8 million, and bidding continued between the parties until Life Electric Vehicles won. Taking into account Rad Power’s debt, the total bid would be $14.9 million.
Another e-bike company called Retrospec made the second-highest bid of $13 million and is listed as a “backup bidder” in case the deal with Life EV falls through. The bid was a steep discount to Rad Power’s highest valuation of $1.65 billion, reached in October 2021, according to PitchBook. The company has raised a total of $329.2 million, according to Pitchbook data.
The acquisition requires approval from a bankruptcy judge.
Rad Power isn’t the only company in the micromobility industry to file for bankruptcy protection in recent years. Peers like VanMoof and Cake have gone through restructuring and found new owners. Scooter company Bird also went through bankruptcy proceedings.
It’s unclear what Life EV plans to do with Rad Power. Life EV CEO Robert Provost directed questions to Rad Power. “The process is still ongoing and Rad Power has an exciting future planned,” he wrote in a message.
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TechCrunch was unable to reach Rad Power for comment. This article will be updated if we hear back from the companies.
Like many of its peers, Rad Power struggled as sales growth slowed during the pandemic.
In recent years, the company has experienced multiple layoffs, a succession of CEO changes and, most recently, troubles when some of its old batteries caught fire. The Consumer Product Safety Commission found 31 reports of battery-related fires.
Rad Power told TechCrunch at the time that it “firmly stands by our reputation as a leader in the battery and e-bike industry and strongly opposes the CPSC’s characterization of any particular Rad battery as defective or unsafe.”
