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Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
Canoo, the EV startup founded in 2017, announced on Friday that it has filed for voluntary relief under Chapter 7 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, resulting in the immediate shutdown of operations.
The filing comes after the company failed to secure additional funding. Canoo had purchasing agreements with the United States Postal Service (USPS), NASA, the Department of Defense, and others —but did not deliver on those commitments.
In the last 12 months, Canoo shares lost 98.22% of their value.
In early November, the company said it had only $700,000 in cash and cash equivalents, followed by three rounds of 12-week-long furloughs affecting most of its staff. When announcing the latest round, the EV truck and van maker said it was shutting down its both vehicle and battery plants in Oklahoma.
While preparing to inform employees about the furloughs, the chief executive of Canoo, Tony Aquila, said in an interview that the company was planning to “move up production in 2025” while admitting that “the next four to six months will be very tough.”
As its final effort, Canoo’s management tried over the last weeks to secure “financial support” from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (“DOE”) Loan Program Office. However, it was “unfortunately unable,” the company said in Friday’s statement.
Canoo added that it was recently “in discussions with foreign sources of capital” while teasing the expansion to the UK region via the biggest British postal service, the Royal Mail.
“In light of the fact that these efforts were unsuccessful, the Board has made the difficult decision to file for insolvency,” the company said.
The CEO Aquila thanked the company’s employees “for their dedication and hard work” adding the management “knows that you believed in our company as we did.”
“We are truly disappointed that things turned out as they did. We would also like to thank NASA, the Department of Defense, The United States Postal Service (USPS), the State of Oklahoma and Walmart for their belief in our products and our company. This means a lot to everyone in the company,” he added.
Canoo’s official website went fully offline earlier this week redirecting all visitors to a third-party-managed investor relations page.
Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
