A yr after Onyx Motorbikes proprietor James Khatiblou died immediately, leaving prospects with unfulfilled orders and tens of millions in unpaid money owed, the model has been revived by its unique founder.
“I’m excited to announce I have resurrected my original brand Onyx with incredible backers!” founder Tim Seward wrote in a LinkedIn publish on Monday. “Onyx is literally back to the future now!”
The firm is promoting solely about 100 RCRs electrical dust bikes to begin. It’s not clear if these are newly produced items, or if these are a part of the batch of e-bikes made earlier this yr by Onyx’s Chinese provider that had been being held in limbo after Khatiblou’s demise.
Seward didn’t reply in time to TechCrunch to offer info on the corporate’s resurrection and which traders he secured to again the corporate.
Seward, who has designed e-bikes for Bird and Ubco, constructed what could be the primary Onyx e-bike, the RCR, in 2016. After launching the corporate with an Indiegogo marketing campaign two years later, that design turned a success amongst a cult following of shoppers who cherished the made-in-the-USA really feel, the 1980s enchantment of the design full with a picket physique, and the highly effective capabilities of the bike.
In 2019, Seward offloaded his stake in Onyx to his pal and former co-worker, Khatiblou, who stumbled as a first-time proprietor as he tried to scale the corporate. Many of the choices he made created an internet of authorized and monetary troubles that also hasn’t been untangled. Khatiblou died with no will and no succession plan, a complication that floor all operations, together with buyer deliveries and funds to suppliers and collectors, to a halt.
Oxygen Funding, an Orange County-based creditor, has claimed it’s owed $2.2 million in debt. In May, Oxygen tried to petition the Los Angeles County probate court docket to turn out to be the administrator of Khatiblou’s property, which might permit it to regulate Onyx’s remaining belongings and, ostensibly, promote these belongings to repay itself.
Oxygen CEO Adam Lomax advised TechCrunch on Tuesday he had no data of Onyx’s revival below Seward. He additionally famous that Oxygen’s petition to regulate Khatiblou’s property remains to be in limbo, pending an as-yet unassigned court docket date, and that his firm nonetheless has not been paid again.
Oxygen wasn’t the one creditor combating for a chunk of Onyx. Per a 2019 working settlement, Kenneth Ames, a former engineering and sourcing government within the LED lighting enterprise primarily based in Simi Valley, and Troy Smith, a self-employed accountant primarily based in Carlsbad, maintain a 37.5% share curiosity in Onyx LLC. Onyx LLC can also be the entity that owns Onyx’s branding, in accordance with a trademark project settlement.
It’s not clear whether or not Ames and Smith are concerned in Onyx’s revival. TechCrunch has reached out to Ames, Troy, and their counsel to study extra. TechCrunch will replace the article in the event that they reply.
