Kanu said on Friday evening that he has and will “cease its operations immediately” after it fails to secure sufficient funding to continue its operations. The writing was on the wall ahead of the EV launch announcement; the company has lost several executives in recent months, and told the SEC in November that he only had $700,000 a year in the bank. .
In a press release announcing the filing, Canoo said it was unable to obtain funding from the Energy Department's Office of Loan Programs or from “foreign capital sources” with which executives were negotiating. “Due to the failure of these efforts, the Board has made the difficult decision to file for insolvency,” the statement said. It owes more than $164 million to hundreds of creditors and has assets of about $126 million, according to Canoo. TechCrunch. According to the filing in Delaware, Canoo's assets will be liquidated and proceeds will be distributed to its creditors. In a statement, CEO Tony Aquila said: “We are truly disappointed that things turned out this way.”
Kanu made several electric vans for NASA And US Army prototypeand struck deals for larger fleets with companies like USPS and Walmart, but it appears only a small number of its vans were ever sold.