A 12 months after Onyx Motorbikes proprietor James Khatiblou died immediately, leaving clients 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’ve resurrected my unique model Onyx with unimaginable backers!” founder Tim Seward wrote in a LinkedIn submit on Monday. “Onyx is actually again to the longer term now!”
The firm is promoting solely about 100 RCRs electrical dirtbikes to start out. It’s not clear if these are newly produced models, or if these are a part of the batch of e-bikes made earlier this 12 months by Onyx’s Chinese provider that have been being held in limbo after Khatiblou’s loss of life.
Seward didn’t reply in time to TechCrunch to supply data on the corporate’s resurrection and what buyers 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 successful amongst a cult following of shoppers who beloved the made-in-the-USA really feel, the Nineteen Eighties attraction of the design full with a wood physique, and the highly effective capabilities of the bike.
In 2019, Seward offloaded his stake in Onyx to his buddy and former co-worker, Khatiblou, who stumbled as a first-time proprietor as he tried to scale the corporate. Many of the selections he made created an online 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 courtroom to turn into the administrator of Khatiblou’s property, which might permit it to manage Onyx’s remaining belongings and, ostensibly, promote these belongings to repay itself.
Oxygen CEO Adam Lomax advised TechCrunch on Tuesday he had no information of Onyx’s revival underneath Seward. He additionally famous that Oxygen’s petition to manage Khatiblou’s property continues to be in limbo, pending an as-yet unassigned courtroom 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 be the entity that owns Onyx’s branding, based on 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 be taught extra. TechCrunch will replace the article in the event that they reply.
