Fremantle-based EV bike manufacturer Tiller Rides has been rescued from voluntary administration by Electro Ventures, who will take a 39.9% share in the company.
On Wednesday this week, the creditors of Tiller Rides voted in favour of the deal which will see them being paid out in full.
At an Extraordinary General Meeting of shareholders held shortly after the creditors meeting, shareholders voted in favour of the issue of the required shares to Electro Ventures and the creation of a 20% share pool for the new senior executives that will be recruited soon.
Perth-based Electro Ventures acts as a holding company for a range of innovation, renewable energy and clean transport businesses, which it owns outright or has a major shareholding in.
The current portfolio is illustrated below:
Many of the above businesses are hardware businesses that, to be profitable, rely on successfully designing, manufacturing and selling products that are very similar in construction to the Tiller Rides Roadster eBike – and are sold using similar business models. Electro Ventures would seem to be a natural partner and investor.
Electro Ventures founder Josh Portlock said the idea is to pivot the existing Tiller Rides business into a new business model to allow it to move towards being a key player in the currently crowded eBike retail market. The essence of the new business model will include:
- a lease-to-buy purchasing system – so people can buy a Roadster with minimal up-front cost and a set weekly payment for a period of something like 12-24 months until they own it.
- a peer-to-peer sharing system – built on one of the EV portfolio company sharing platforms that allows Riders to earn an income from their bike – possibly even enough to pay the weekly lease-to-buy cost resulting in net zero cost.
Business News reported this week that there had been $5.2M invested in the business (over $2M of which was from equity crowdfunding), had sold 300 of its Roadster e-bikes (which would be worth more than $1.3M in sales), had a further 90 bikes in storage in Fremantle and 64 bikes at its manufacturer in China, along with $280,000 in parts.
A much relieved Tiller Rides Founder Julian Ilich said after the shareholder meeting that “this is a great outcome giving Tiller Rides a new lease on life and to potentially allow shareholder value to be restored.”
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