Seattle-based Rad Power Bikes, a pioneer in mass-market e-bikes, filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this week as it continues to look for a buyer amid falling sales and massive debt.

Court documents show the 18-year-old company owes nearly $73 million to dozens of creditors, including the federal agency that collects tariffs, but has only $32 million in assets.

The Chapter 11 bankruptcy, filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Spokane, allows Rad Power Bikes to remain in business as it reorganizes operations and sells itself, which it hopes to do in the next two months, the company said in an emailed statement Wednesday.

Our goal is to keep the company intact and preserve the relationships we have built with riders, vendors, suppliers, and partners," the statement read. "We are not giving up."

Rad Power also named its fourth CEO since 2022 — former Chief Financial Officer Angelina Smith.

The company's nine retail locations, including in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood, are open, and its website is up.

In early November, Rad Power laid off 64 workers, including its CEO, and warned it could shut down early next year as it struggled to reverse falling sales after expanding too aggressively during the pandemic.

Weeks later, the Consumer Product Safety Commission warned of fire dangers linked to batteries on some Rad Power models. The company disputed those findings.

But the bankruptcy filings offered the clear details about the scale of the problems at a company that was once the darling of the e-bike world and raised hundreds of millions of dollars from investors.

Founded in 2007 by Mike Radenbaugh and Ty Collins, who met at college in California, Rad Power used a direct-to-consumer model and imported components to offer e-bikes much cheaper than competing models.

Sales surged during the pandemic, as millions of people sought alternatives to mass transit. Investment poured in, including more than $300 million between February 2020 and October 2021.

In 2021, the company was valued at $1.65 billion and dubbed itself the largest e-bike seller in North America, according to GeekWire.

But as the pandemic surge faded, Rad Power Bikes found itself overextended and overloaded with inventory. "Like other companies in the traditional and e-bike industry, Rad did not anticipate the sudden drop in consumer demand from Covid-era peaks," the company noted in a letter to employees last month.

Between 2023 and 2024, gross sales fell from $130 million to $104 million, and were just $63 million in 2025 through Dec. 15, according to the company's bankruptcy filings.

Tellingly, the 20 largest unsecured creditors listed in Monday's filings include many of Rad Power's suppliers in Asia.

Also telling: Rad Power's largest single unsecured debt is $8.4 million which is owed to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the federal agency that collects tariffs on imported goods. The company disputes the claim, according to filings.

A company spokesperson declined to comment on whether that debt was related to tariffs imposed by the Trump administration, which has taken a tough stance on imported goods.

But in a letter to employees, the company said tariffs were contributing to its "significant financial challenges."

Rad Power was also hit by product recalls as well as lawsuits related to a battery fire and the death of a 12-year-old rider.

In 2022, the company embarked on what appeared to be an attempted turnaround, with layoffs and closure of its European office. Radenbaugh handed off the role of CEO to Phil Molyneux, formerly with Dyson and Sony Electronics.

Radenbaugh remains on the board of directors and owns 41.3% of the company, according to filings.

In March of this year, that turnaround got a turnaround when Rad Power brought in yet another CEO — Kathi Lentzsch, who had been CEO at now-defunct Bartell Drugs before its 2020 sale to the soon-to-go-bankrupt Rite Aid.

Rad Power Bikes also said it was shifting its emphasis from direct-to-consumer operations to brick-and-mortar retail. It currently has retail outlets in Seattle and eight other North American cities.

But the company appeared unable to roll out new bike models as rapidly as it had in its "heyday,” said Micah Toll, who writes for Electrek, an industry journal, in an email after November's layoffs.

In the meantime, Rad Power Bikes' once-dominant position as the affordable e-bike brand has been undermined by competitors.

After last month's layoffs, which included Lentzsch, Rad Power Bikes said it had begun looking for partners that could either provide funding or acquire the company outright, but had come up short.

On Wednesday, a Rad Power Bikes spokesperson said the company is "in discussions with a number of interested parties," but that "we don't have a specific buyer at this time."

Asked about possible impacts of the bankruptcy on customer service and support, the spokesperson reiterated that the Chapter 11 process maintains operations "while we pursue the best possible outcome for the people who rely on Rad every day, including our customers with service and support.

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