Angell E-Bike Bankruptcy: French Startup Faces Collapse

Angell Electric Bike Startup Files for Insolvency

Angell, a French company specializing in smart electric bikes, has announced its intention to pursue judicial liquidation and has informed customers of its insolvency.

Company Founder Confirms Closure

Marc Simoncini, co-founder and CEO of Angell – also known as a judge on the French edition of “Shark Tank” – revealed the company’s closure via Instagram. He attributed the failure to a critical hardware flaw, despite extensive efforts from the team.

Initial Vision and Features

Established in 2019, Angell aimed to develop an electric bike incorporating numerous smart features and connectivity options. The initial model featured a central color touchscreen for displaying information and providing navigation assistance.

Bluetooth connectivity allowed integration with smartphones, enhancing the user experience.

Competition in the Smart Bike Market

Angell’s bikes, equipped with an integrated lock, alarm system, GPS, and cellular modem, directly competed with other European manufacturers of smart bicycles, including Cowboy and VanMoof. It is noteworthy that VanMoof also experienced bankruptcy in 2023, though a relaunch is currently underway.

Reliability Concerns and Critical Flaw

Despite its comprehensive feature set, Angell encountered challenges with product reliability. The company communicated to its customers that a recent issue with the first-generation bike proved insurmountable.

Specifically, the company identified a weakness in the bike’s frame, posing a breakage risk.

Manufacturing and Outsourcing

Angell did not handle bike manufacturing internally. Instead, it collaborated with SEB, a French industrial group encompassing brands like All-Clad, Krups, and Tefal, to outsource production.

Design responsibilities were delegated to a third-party firm, Kickmaker.

Responsibility and Potential Recourse

In its communication, Angell attempted to attribute the design flaws to its manufacturing and design partners, SEB and Kickmaker. However, the company retains financial responsibility for the defective bikes.

The options available were a recall of up to 7,000 bikes or full customer reimbursement.

Insolvency as the Chosen Path

Both recall and reimbursement proved financially prohibitive for the startup, leading to the decision to initiate insolvency proceedings. Further legal proceedings will likely determine liability for the manufacturing defects among Angell, SEB, and Kickmaker.

Impact on Angell Bike Owners

Owners of the first-generation Angell bikes are now faced with the prospect of owning a bicycle deemed unsafe for operation. Customers with newer models may also be affected, as the company anticipates potentially shutting down its servers.

Concerns exist regarding the potential impact on electric assistance and the functionality of the smart lock if the servers are deactivated.