Rad Power Bikes has reached a deal to sell itself for $13.2 million

Electric bicycle 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, a little over a month ago. After entering the bankruptcy process.

Florida-based Life EV bills itself as a “developer, manufacturer and distributor in the light-duty electric vehicle industry.” It offers a number of electric bikes for sale on its website, although most were labeled as “sold” at the time of publishing this article.

A Deposit A bankruptcy filing over the weekend shows that five entities participated in an auction for Rad Power’s assets on January 22. The first bid came in at $8 million, and the parties traded bids until Life Electric Vehicles came out as the winner. When Rad Power’s liabilities are accounted for, the total value of the bid is $14.9 million.

Another e-bike company called Retrospec received the second-highest bid at $13 million, and is being designated as a “backup bidder” in case the deal with Life EV falls through. The offers were a significant discount compared to Rad Power’s $1.65 billion valuation reached in October 2021. Per Pitchbook. The company has raised a total of $329.2 million, according to Pitchbook data.

The acquisition still needs approval from a bankruptcy judge.

Rad Power isn’t the only company in the micromobility world to seek bankruptcy protection in recent years. Peers like VanMoof and Cake have undergone restructurings and found new owners. Scooter Bird also went through the bankruptcy process.

It’s not clear what Life EV plans to do with Rad Power; Robert Provost, CEO of Life EV, directed questions to Rad Power. “It is still an ongoing process and an exciting future is planned for Rad Power,” he wrote in a letter.

TechCrunch was unable to reach Rad Power for comment; This article will be updated if the company responds.

Like many of its peers, Rad Power saw a surge in sales during the pandemic, but has struggled as that momentum dried up.

The company has gone through multiple rounds of layoffs in recent years, has shuffled executives, and recently had an issue with some of its old batteries catching fire. The Consumer Product Safety Commission found 31 reported fires linked to batteries.

Rad Power told TechCrunch at the time that it “strongly stands behind our batteries and our reputation as leaders in the e-bike industry, and strongly disagrees with the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)’s description of certain Rad batteries as defective or unsafe.”