Belgian financial press De Tijd and L’echo are reporting that electric bike and software pioneer Cowboy may already have burned through a majority chunk of the Crowdcube investment cash put up by around 8,000 people, while a mooted takeover by a French cycling consortium is taking longer than expected.
In what appears to be an oddly similar chain of reasoning behind the troubles to that famously faced by VanMoof in 2023, namely a backlog of service issues that relied on brand-direct management, rather than a broad chain of service centres able to address issues, the Belgian papers report that a subsequent drive to work with a network of retail repair shops may have come too late.
A restructuring plan put forward would now take Cowboy’s balance sheet back to zero, writing off investors’ participation all the way down to a 4.9% share of the business, with the crowdfunders’ slice even smaller than that.
In the restructuring plan, all existing shares would be converted to new, non-voting shares with a ‘minimal par value’. This write-down affects even the Founders of the business, as well as those venture capitalists like Exor and Index Ventures who bought into the brand’s drive to capture market share in the e-bike world. Those two investment firms had a combined €134 million sunk into Cowboy since 2017 and despite a company valuation of €172 million in 2022, they too have had nearly all value eroded under the new plan for the business.
Brussels-based technology expert and investor Thomas Smolders has waded into the story, having himself had a Cowboy e-bike that suffered ‘teething problems’. He told radio platform De Werald Vandaag that he perceives the brand to have been run ‘like a software brand, one that releases a new version of a product every so often, but with a bicycle, it’s difficult to just launch a new version.’
It’s fair to say that it has only been in recent years that Cowboy has pivoted to broader delivery of its servicing proposition. In February of 2024, it dived deeper into the issue, launching at-home servicing, attempting to give further coverage to areas that were not yet covered by a bicycle mechanic at a store.
Thomas Smolders adds his point of view, stating the company has had an ‘Apple philosophy’. He said ‘You couldn’t just repair the bike: if something broke, you were forced to go to Cowboy for parts. And when things really went wrong, management buried its head in the sand. Especially when critical questions were asked about the company’s annual balance sheet.’
2025 has been a tough year for the brand and, again mirroring the struggles of many other brands that can’t seem to catch a break, Cowboy faced a model recall in May of this year on its C4 ST build. A hazard involving a potential break between the headtube and downtube resulted in a costly recall action.
‘The bike frames do not comply with the durability and safety requirements of EN 15194 and pose a serious mechanical safety risk to consumers,’ wrote the Gov.UK website.
In 2024, Cowboy’s accounts showed a €21.7 million revenue, set against liabilities of €57 million and a net loss of €21 million.
Rebirth is the French cycling consortium now pushing a consolidation strategy to keep the lights on. This is the parent to brands like Peugeot Cycles and Gitane. Since early 2025, Rebirth has been handling Cowboy’s assembly and if the restructuring goes to plan, Cowboy will in future be distributed via 600 French specialist retailers. No plan is yet public on other European territories.
While Cowboy now has the task of planning its next steps, VanMoof is back on track under the guidance of Lavoie. Cycling Electric has since reviewed the latest generation VanMoof s5, which is widely seen as a direct Cowboy competitor on account of its design and tech-savvy approach.
