Lectric excels as venture capital-backed e-bike competitors face bankruptcy.

      The e-bike sector has spent the last two years witnessing the downfall of its favorites. VanMoof, the Dutch startup that secured over €200 million, went bankrupt in July 2023. Meanwhile, Rad Power Bikes, the Seattle-based company that raised $330 million and was valued at $1.65 billion, filed for Chapter 11 in December 2025, with its assets selling for $13.2 million.

      From its base in Phoenix, Arizona, Lectric eBikes has observed these developments while never relying on venture capital, recently achieving its highest sales month ever. CEO Levi Conlow informed TechCrunch that Lectric sold nearly 30,000 bikes last month, remarking, “I’m not sure anybody has accomplished that before, even during peak COVID.”

      Expanding while others retreat

      Over the last six months, Lectric has introduced three new brands. It revitalized Juiced Bikes, an e-bike brand it acquired during a distressed sale in 2025, created Juiced Powersports, which plans to ship its first electric motorcycle in August, and recently launched Monarc, a premium adventure brand in Minnesota led by industry veterans Julia Moran and Ryan Callahan.

      In total, Lectric has invested around $10 million in these three projects. The company employs 170 people and ships 90% of its products directly to consumers via a website that attracts two to four million visitors each month. In 2025, it shipped 150,000 units.

      “While others might be scaling back or seeking funding, we’re actually deploying and investing,” Conlow stated. “I honestly don’t believe the market is saturated right now.” After naming several companies that have exited or collapsed in the US, he added, “I think the market currently lacks substantial competition.”

      The contrarian backstory

      Conlow and co-founder Robby Deziel established Lectric seven years ago as childhood friends. They bootstrapped the business until 2020 when they accepted an investment from private equity firm Bertram Capital Management, with no venture capital involved.

      This approach—bootstrapping, maintaining profitability, allowing better-funded competitors to fail, and then expanding—may serve as a model for founders across various hardware sectors. The venture-backed e-bike companies that faltered followed a similar trajectory: massive fundraising, aggressive scaling driven by pandemic demand, and post-pandemic corrections that left them with excess inventory, oversized staff, and insufficient margins.

      Rad Power’s downfall was particularly revealing. The company ended up with $32 million in assets versus $73 million in liabilities, with US Customs and Border Protection as its largest creditor, owed $8.4 million in unpaid tariffs. It went from a $1.65 billion valuation to a fire sale of $13.2 million in just three years.

      Separate brands, separate teams

      Conlow is strategic about how he manages expansion. Each of the three new brands has distinct product engineering, branding, marketing, and customer service teams. While they share Lectric’s supply chain and purchasing capabilities, they operate independently.

      “What we’ve learned is that Lectric cannot serve all customers at once,” Conlow noted. Featuring a Juiced model on the Lectric homepage might divert attention from the top-selling XP Series. “You need to be much more intentional. When focused, you can delve deeply into that particular area.”

      He even desires for the brands to compete with one another. “We don’t want three brands that end up looking and acting the same. There should be healthy competition among them.”

      Monarc’s initial offering

      Monarc’s debut product, an all-terrain trail e-bike called the Marker, is set to ship to customers in July. It features two UL 2271 certified LG 48-volt 15Ah batteries providing 720 watt-hours each, which is an uncommon specification in the industry. Additional features include a Bafang motor, Shimano drivetrain, 5-amp fast charger, and a 3.5-inch color touchscreen that connects with accessories like rearview radar and smart helmets.

      The brand emphasizes a five-year warranty along with human customer support. Conlow emphasized that none of its brands would utilize AI for customer service, a notable contrast in a year where many companies are rushing to automate that function.

      It remains to be seen whether Lectric will continue to launch new brands. Conlow indicated that their schedule is currently full. However, the underlying message is clear: the recent wave of bankruptcies in the e-bike market did not indicate a dying industry but rather that the wrong companies, built on unsustainable capital structures, were attempting to serve it.