Lightyear, the Brabant manufacturer of electric solar cars, is making a new start. A group of investors has not only collected enough capital to start a new and slimmed-down company. There is also agreement on the patent rights of the solar car.
Now the company can probably continue to build an “affordable solar-powered car for a wide audience”. On January 26, Lightyear’s production department, by far the largest branch of the company, was declared bankrupt.
A group of financiers led by start-up investor Arnoud Aalbersberg is now putting 8 million euros on the table. That should be a “solid basis” for a new company that will work on the Lightyear 2, a cheaper family car with solar panels. It follows the first, more expensive model that went into production in November.
“This shows our strong belief in building solar cars for a wide audience, with only a limited dependence on the electricity grid,” Aalbersberg said in a statement. the Lightyear website. The investor previously stated that another 40 to 45 million euros would have to be collected for the company later.
Read also: Lightyear, producer of solar cars, got stuck in a growth spurt
The restart would take place with 100 to 180 of the 650 employees of the Helmond car manufacturer. Some of the employees at Lightyear were knowledge workers who had come to the Dutch company from abroad. It is not yet known what consequences the restart will have for the staff. Curator Reinoud van Oeijen of the Holla office, which handles the bankruptcy of Lightyear’s production department, did not respond to a request for comment on Monday afternoon.
It is also not clear who will lead the restarted company and what the role of the current management, led by founder Lex Hoefsloot, will be. In the statement on the website, Hoefsloot says: “We realize that the impact on our employees, investors, customers and suppliers is great, but we have tried to find the best way for everyone.”
Patents in slimmed down company
Lightyear also reported on Monday that the patent rights to the solar car will be transferred to the new, slimmed-down company. The issue of intellectual property stood in the way of a restart for some time.
The patent rights were held by six investors in Lightyear, including Invest-NL. That is the investment fund of the Ministry of Finance. Invest-NL and the other parties involved received the rights as collateral in the middle of last year for an investment of 115 million euros. The investors involved did not want to give them up just like that in the event of a restart. They have now agreed to transfer the intellectual property to the new company.
“We have opted for the way forward,” says Rinke Zonneveld, CEO of Invest-NL. “Over the past year, we have invested significantly in Lightyear because we believe in the potential of this technology.”
According to Zonneveld, the future of the company is still uncertain. “It is a very exciting adventure. We are now focusing on putting the Lightyear 2 into production. This may require another 1 billion euros. But other exits are also possible in the future.” In addition, Lightyear could also work with a strategic partner, a car supplier for example, or become a supplier of technology.
The car with solar panels should be a Dutch answer to Elon Musk’s Tesla. Lightyear, which was founded in 2016, has grown strongly in the past year. The company attracted many new investors, including Invest-NL and SHV, and hired many new employees. A total of around 200 million euros has already been invested in the start-up.
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