After five years of work and despite the start of deliveries, the sophisticated Finnish motor-gear system for Revonte electric bikes filed for bankruptcy at the end of September.
It’s not a crisis yet, but some people are breaking spokes on electric bikes. The biggest news, of course, was the bankruptcy and acquisition of VanMoof, while Flyer suffered losses due to staff cuts and lost sales. Not to forget the Austrian company GLEAM Technologies GmbH, which fell last August. This time it’s a Finnish startup that’s been hit hard.
A promising engine
Revonte launched in 2018 with the desire to offer original electric assistance by integrating a motor and a continuously variable transmission with a planetary system in which all elements are mobile, as well as a second motor in one block. Everything could produce up to 200 Nm of torque and 2 kW, coupled with a special battery. Another advantage was that the offer gave electric bike manufacturers freedom in configuration.
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“We have seen how brands have started to lose their identity in favor of their suppliers,” co-founder Antero Jalkanen told Tech.eu. “Customers are increasingly coming to dealers and asking for an e-bike with a specific motor, regardless of the brand.” We naturally think of the aura of Bosch blocks, just like Shimano does with city bikes.
A quick investment… then nothing
This Revonte One system, coupled with an application that configures the modes, was attractive on paper. Definitely enough to unlock a $2.4 million investment across numerous funds in 2019.
But since then, the Scandinavian company has been unable to secure new cash flow to move on to the next phase. Revonte hoped to deliver its first engines as early as 2020, but concluded that “the engine required a new version to reduce weight and production costs.”
His intellectual property is for sale
Despite a crowdfunding attempt in 2022, the company never took this step as only a few units of the One were sold in 2023. It was able to announce its partnership with small player Pässilä in VTTAE, the strange amphibious cargo ship. In her LinkedIn post, she also points out the electric bike market, which has lost pace after the explosion in sales during the Covid-19 period.
This isn’t really the case in France, where sales records are broken every year.
Still visible at Eurobike in June, the Revonte brand filed for bankruptcy at the end of September and is now selling its intellectual property to potential buyers.