Lightyear Will Try a Comeback With a Group of 225 Investors and €8 Million

Arnoud Aalbersberg was the investor who managed to unite other people who put money into the company. According to Quote, he volunteered to help three weeks ago and started a WhatsApp group among investors that soon reached 30 people. As Lightyear could not tell him who had invested in the company, he asked the startup to send these people an email warning about the group. It ended up with 225 members who had collectively invested €80 million ($85.5 million) in the company until that point.

The goal of this reunion was to raise €8 million until February 17. It is not clear if that was a condition imposed by the suspension of payments proceeding or by the trustee. I have contacted Aalbersberg to try to learn more, but all he was able to share was that Lightyear would indeed cancel the Lightyear 0 to focus on the Lightyear 2. In other words, it would not deliver any units of the limited-series vehicle that costs €250,000 a pop to concentrate on making the €40,000 solar car that can only turn a profit if produced in massive numbers.

Quote said that Aalbersberg and his fellow investors still faced another hurdle. Lightyear separated its manufacturing activities from its intellectual property (IP) with two companies, respectively Atlas Technologies B.V. and Atlas Technologies Holding B.V. The first is the one that went bankrupt. Atlas Technologies Holding B.V. was controlled by a consortium of incumbent investors that turned the intellectual property of Lightyear into collateral for their investments. These investors included Invest-NL, BOM, Dela, and the Fentener van Vlissingens family fund.

According to the Dutch website, the two investor groups had to discuss how Lightyear would proceed. They apparently only reached a deal on February 19 (Sunday) at 9 PM. The startup’s IP is now collateral for all investors. The details of their agreement were not revealed by Quote or by Lightyear. The investors Aalbersberg led are now known as the Individual Investors Group (IIG).

When asked about the message the company will send by focusing on a high-scale car instead of delivering the limited-series units that had already been ordered, Aalbersberg stated that he would rather “park this discussion due to other priorities to make the restart happen.” For now, the investor and his group will focus on a plan to deliver a working prototype of the Lightyear 2.

The first phase of this plan involves the €8 million the company’s investors managed to raise. Neither Lightyear nor Aalbersberg disclosed what purpose this money has, but it seemingly has to do with creating a new company. When it is established, this enterprise aims to present the working prototype in 18 months. The investor leader told Quote “that dreams can become reality.” The third phase is the mass production of the Lightyear 2, which Aalbersberg acknowledges will demand “another billion. There is a lot of faith in that.” Indeed.

If Lightyear wants that kind of money, it is probably planning to build its own factory instead of hiring a manufacturing contractor such as Valmet Automotive. Although there are people involved with Lightyear who could help provide that extra €1 billion the company needs, the message the startup is sending is controversial. Stopping the production of the limited-series vehicle was its only option under the bankruptcy threat. Still, there is no explicit reason not to restart production, now that investors want to bring it back to business.

If the Lightyear 0 is dead because it had no demand, there is no reason to believe people will want to purchase the Lightyear 2, even at a lower price. If the company’s flagship kicked the bucket because it would not turn a profit even costing €250,000, how would the Lightyear 2 do that costing less than one-sixth what people would pay on the larger sedan? Above all, who would bet €1 billion on a company that did not deliver a single product? One that has never made a vehicle without the help of a manufacturing contractor?

To get there, Aalbersberg told Quote that the new company would “have to look very closely at who will run the place.” That means Lex Hoefsloot is no longer the CEO of the company he and his friends founded. The investors wanted clarity and “the best people in the best places.” Confirming that Hoefsloot will not be in charge anymore, Aalbersberg stated that “the founders will also be given a role in the new Lightyear to make their vision a reality.” If that vision is to create a new automaker with a high-scale vehicle right off the bat, sheer luck will be even more crucial than €1 billion and the right people at the key jobs.