The firm had sold more than 6000 of its bikes worldwide, Ubco chief executive Oliver Hutaff told the Herald in August. Hutaff said a major capital raise was in the works – which never eventuated before Friday’s receivership.

Ex-MD fires shots

Mark Phillips, managing director of Ubco Australia between March 2020 and September 2022, blamed the collapse in part on squeamishness about pursuing defence opportunities.

“Attending a defence trade show led to an opportunity to bid for supply of electric bikes to the military that we were then told not to pursue, because some board members were against putting anything in defence. I felt it was short-sighted but nonetheless disengaged,” Phillips told the Herald this morning.

“I can’t say we would have won it. But in my opinion, it was a ludicrous decision that pointed at wider issues in the way the company was going.”

Phillips also claimed that Ubco had tried to expand globally too far and too fast, in his opinion. It had become top-heavy with managers, in his view.

He said the firm should have concentrated on its core model – “say to a faster road bike alongside the 50km/h moped”. Instead, it spent years working on a trail bike and a quad bike, neither of which made it to market.

“There are hundreds of boxes of bikes in warehouses in Australia and New Zealand that are defunct and not for sale because of issues with them,” Phillips said.

Ubco board members have been approached for comment.

Then Ubco chief executive Timothy Allan told the Herald a quad bike was on the way after his firm raised $14 million in 2021, in part to fund new product development. The model was never released.

Ubco had a rolling-maul of overlapping capital raises, making it tricky to ascertain exactly how much it had raised. In January 2023, it said it had raised a further $35m.

At the time of Ubco’s receivership, its single largest shareholder was its Taiwanese manufacturing partner TPK – a multibillion firm that took an Ubco stake in 2021. According to the Companies Office, TPK owned 40% between a direct stake and a holding by its investment arm.

The second largest shareholder was Auckland-based venture-capital firm Global From Day One (GD1) with a 21% shareholding built across several investment rounds.

Other shareholders included individual investors who participated in several raises through crowdfunded equity platform Snowball Effect, which had a 4% holding on behalf of its members. In 2021, Snowball offered its members shares, with a minimum $5000 parcel, as Ubco sought to raise up to US$15m through the platform. The effort pulled in just over US$3m.

The rich-list Tindal, Mafsen and Holdsworth families also had small stakes.

Ubco also talked up plans for a possible listing in the United States or on the Australian Stock Exchange, but the plans came to nothing as the market for tech IPOs hit a rough patch post-pandemic.

Post-op

The Australia Post deal, announced in August was for 175 e-motorcycles. Ubco also had a smaller trial with NZ Post, and a monthly subscription pilot with Domino’s Pizza that saw the chain use its two-wheelers for deliveries from some stores.

“Ongoing discussions are being held with NZ Post with a view to fleet expansion subject to the success of the pilot,” Hutaff told the Herald.

“While we cannot specifically comment on the Paxster phase-out, we welcome any discussion NZ Post would like to have on this to see where our bike could be used to replace some of the postal deliveries the [400] Paxsters serviced.”

Ubco, founded by Allan, Daryl Neal and Anthony Clyde, first made a splash when it hit Fieldays in 2015 with its first model, an all-electric utility bike that appealed to farmers because its almost silent-running was animal friendly, and the engine with almost no moving parts meant no running costs. It helped, too, that the removable battery could also be used to recharge power tools.

The lack of noise also drew conservation and tourism clients. But with a top speed of 35km/h, it was too slow for roads.

Faster, road-capable urban models have since been released – but durability and practicality from its rural roots remain one of the Kiwi company’s key points of difference in a crowded market. More recently, it has added cloud-based fleet management software.

The bikes are designed in Mount Maunganui and contract-manufactured in China and Taiwan.

It recent years, it faced dozens of new competitors, from established motorcycle makers moving into electric models to other startup who have designed locally and contract-manufactured overseas.

Ubco’s collapse continues a bad 12 months for NZ hardware tech

Hamilton hydroil aquabike maker Manta5 collapsed in May last year, while SolarZero was placed in liquidation in November.

Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.