Nuked Scooter sharing company lime is scooping up the assets of former electric skateboard startup boosted. At least five of boosted’s core patents were assigned to the company on April 15th in the government’s database. Two former employees say lime has been working on acquiring boosted’s intellectual property dating back to the end of 2019.
The move comes after a proposed acquisition from Yamaha fell through. The two former employees were granted anonymity because of non-disclosure agreements they signed with the startup.
Former CEO Sanjay Dastoor left the company more than a year ago. He posted a message to the boosted subreddit saying that’this includes design files, software and code, diagnostics, parts and test equipment’.
At least five senior boost employees have joined lime, according to LinkedIn. A mechanical design engineer who worked on boosted’s scooter and was leading the design for the company’s product and vehicle architecture design. The company was a seated electric scooter or moped in the style of the products from startups like juiced or Super 73.
The patents were technically assigned to lime by an LLC set up by investment firm structural capital, which loaned boosted money in the second half of 2019. The firm has held many of the startup’s assets as collateral ever since, according to patent office documents and the former employees.
Lime’s CEO Jeff russakow and remaining cofounder John ulmen did not respond to a request for comment. Spokesperson for lime said the company is n’t’ready to discuss’.
The company missed payments to vendors and complained about customer service. One of the executives left the company to become lime’s vice president of hardware.
Boosted ran into financial trouble after developing a rugged $ 1,600 electric scooter. The company had also spent a lot of the money it raised to expand into more than 30 countries around the world.
Boosted announced in March that it was laying off most of its employees and looking for a buyer. That’s left some current and prospective customers in limbo, many of whom were waiting for orders to be filled or skateboards to be repaired.
Crowdsourced solutions to fix and modify their boards. Users have turned to crowdsourced solutions for fixing and modify the boards.
Dastoor wrote on Reddit that he’s’trying to find a way to help with this’. He is encouraging customers to contact lime.
A supply chain consulting firm sued boosted over $ 55,000 in unpaid bills. On March 30th, boosted was sued by creative agency underbelly. The company says it is still owed just shy of $ 80,000.
Lime laid off 14 percent of its workforce in early January and exited 12 markets. It has reportedly considered more layoffs as it pauses service around the world due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The story has been updated with new information from a Reddit post by former boosted CEO Sanjay Dastoor. The story was updated on April 16th, 10:30 PM et.
