UPDATE: After recently filing for bankruptcy, VanMoof's future has apparently been saved by Lavoie, the electric scooter subsidiary of Formula One engineering company McLaren Applied. McLaren Applied Chairman Nick Fry told Reuters that the undisclosed investment will aim to stabilize and grow VanMoof's business with "tens of millions" GBP "in the short term."

"This is a huge opportunity for us as this (VanMoof) is a company with a brilliant product. But this is not going to be a walk in the park, this also is a company that got itself into a difficult financial situation", Fry added.

Compared to its original business model, VanMoof is said to no longer operate under the same in-house retail store model, but rather the bikes and their servicing will take place at third-party vendors. While this may take away from the integrated aspect of the business, it should open the possibility of new market expansions, as well as actually being a business model that might last.

Backed by hundreds of millions of dollars-worth of financing, VanMoof's fate is now in the hand of the court of Amsterdam, which will try to sell off the company's assets to keep the company going, according to Tech Crunch.

VanMoof's stores located in Tokyo, New York, Seattle and San Francisco are said to remain open as of now, with the rest shutting for good. The company's experts also detailed how existing users can still operate their battery-powered bicycles without the use of the app, in case that stops working, as well.

"The two administrators Mr. Padberg and Mr. De Wit have been appointed as trustees. The trustees are continuing to assess the situation at VanMoof and are investigating the possibilities of a re-start out of bankruptcy by means of an asset sale to a third party, so that the activities of VanMoof can be continued. The VanMoof legal entities outside the Netherlands are not in insolvency proceedings", company officials stated.

Last year, we wrote about VanMoof's at the time new bicycle models, which seemed to boost the company's place on the market, but apparently, they weren't enough to help VanMoof pedal to success.

Since the company's bikes are expensive and can cost as much as 4.000 USD per unit, Cowboy, a rival on VanMoof developed their own way to help customers unlock their VanMoof bikes, should these be out of the application at some point.