Rad Power Bikes’ new owner wants to rehire employees, open stores and return e-bike brand to glory days

Robert Provost has big plans for Rad Power Bikes, the recently bankrupt Seattle-based electric bike maker that he thinks can reclaim its industry dominance — and grow even larger.

In an interview with GeekWire on Friday, Provost, the CEO of South Florida-based Life Electric Vehicles Holdings, Inc., laid out an ambitious roadmap to overhaul Rad following his company’s acquisition of the startup’s assets, which closed this week.

“It’s not a continuation of Rad Power, more like a phoenix,” Provost said. “The rebirth.”

Under a new corporate entity called Rad Life Mobility, owned by Life EV Holdings, Provost said offers have been extended to re-hire 95% of employees who were laid off as part the bankruptcy process. Many of them are based in the Seattle area where Rad grew over the years.

Provost said about 70 people have accepted so far and he wants to hear from anyone who may have been missed — even former employees who helped build Rad during its heyday before and during the pandemic.

“We acquired all the digital assets, all the tangible assets. It was up to us on the workforce, we could actually hire them or not,” he said. “So we made the decision to go ahead and hire them. They’ve done a really great job.”

Provost said Life EV added another 15 or 20 of its people to Rad Life Mobility, including a new president, Salt Lake City-based Jim Brown, a Life EV investor who has extensive automotive dealership retail experience with Larry H. Miller Automotive Group in Utah.

“Some of the front office will be in person in Utah, but we are maintaining Seattle,” Provost said.

Based in Deerfield Beach, Fla., Life Electric Vehicles Holdings — publicly traded on the OTC market as LFEV — is a micro-mobility platform company focused on acquiring and scaling established e-bike brands. In November 2023, it acquired Serial 1, the in-house electric bicycle company originally started by motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson.

While Rad takes on a new corporate identity, the Rad Power Bikes branding will continue on bikes, products and retail locations. And despite the struggles it encountered, Provost thinks there is still a lot of value in the brand.

“We’re all excited,” Provost said. “It was No. 1. It was the highest-valued electric-bike-only company in the U.S. Our goal is get it back to that value, if not beyond that.”

Speaking during a Zoom call from his Florida office, Provost could hardly slow down while listing all that he and Life EV hope to accomplish with Rad Life Mobility, including:

• Bike assembly: Provost plans to shift Rad from a traditional overseas manufacturing model to a “just-in-time” U.S.-based assembly process to lower costs and manage inventory. While parts will still be sourced globally, final assembly will move to a 100,000-square-foot facility in the central U.S. Provost noted the company will utilize a Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) structure to mitigate the tariff burdens that plagued previous management. “We build only a few weeks out. It’s more of a just-in-time type of production,” he said.
• Distribution and logistics: Provost called the reliance on third-party logistics and the associated costs a primary reason for Rad’s previous financial struggles. “We don’t need [3PL] because we’re managing that side of it,” he said. “We clean all that up, Rad becomes immediately profitable.”
• Retail stores: Seven Rad stores will remain open in the U.S., including the flagship store in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood. Provost said he was sad to see stores close in Vancouver, B.C., and St. Petersburg, Fla., earlier this year. Re-opening in Florida is a priority and getting Vancouver back would be nice, he said, adding that opening new Rad stores in at least 24 other key U.S. markets is the goal. Provost also said previous margins “weren’t sufficient” to dealers that carried Rad bikes and a new program “will have pricing that will be very attractive to them.”
• Battery replacement program: Provost said the new company will take care of customers with Rad bikes and batteries impacted by the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s warning last fall, about potential fire hazards. “We’re going to put a program in to go ahead and replace those batteries for everyone, at like a 50% discount,” he said. “We will make sure it’s a Safe Shield Battery — the newer product. It’s gonna take us a little time to get that done.”
• Another acquisition: “There’s another company we’re looking at that is actually a perfect complement to Rad Power. We’re most likely going to acquire that company, in the next week or so,” Provost said, adding that he couldn’t share a name yet but that he thinks it’s a company everybody knows.

Rad Power Bikes launched in 2015 with a direct-to-consumer model and sub-$2,000 e-bikes aimed at casual riders, and in short time became a high-flying startup in Seattle.

The company saw demand surge nearly 300% during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rad raised more than $300 million in 2021 and branded itself as North America’s largest e-bike seller.

But the momentum faded in 2022 as demand cooled and a series of missteps and macroeconomic challenges led to more than seven rounds of layoffs.

The startup, originally founded by e-bike tinkerer Mike Radenbaugh and longtime friend Ty Collins, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December 2025 following surprising news in November that the company was fighting for survival as it faced “significant financial challenges.”

In its bankruptcy filing, Rad revealed a steady drop in gross revenue — from $129.8 million in 2023 to $103.8 million in 2024, and $63.3 million toward the end of 2025. The company reported total liabilities of nearly $73 million, more than double its assets of $32 million.

Rad’s assets were acquired by Life EV for $13.2 million, which Provost called a deal in relation to its onetime valuation of $1.65 billion. He said that the Life EV ownership group was ready to bid higher — and it’s prepared to spend far more to revitalize the brand.

Backed by a group of over 200 private shareholders and “very significant entrepreneurs,” Provost described the investor group as having “extremely deep pockets.”

The new Rad will still face some of the industry issues that caught up to the old Rad, chiefly that competition is much stiffer now than it was 10 years ago and the market has become saturated with a wide variety of e-bike brands.

But Provost said the company intends to introduce new products, build up sufficient inventory, make the company profitable and get everyone from investors to employees excited again. Not to mention Rad riders.

“The most important part out of this conversation, for me, is to let the Rad community know we are there for them,” Provost said. “We are going to support them 100%.”

Related:

• Rad Power Bikes brand will live on as Life EV completes acquisition of Seattle e-bike maker’s assets
• Rad Power Bikes sells for $13.2M as asset auction attracts bidders for bankrupt e-bike maker
• The rise and fall of Rad Power Bikes: From breakout success to the brink of shutdown
• Rad Power Bikes’ biggest unpaid bill is $8.3M to U.S. Customs, as tariffs squeeze the industry
• Rad Power Bikes closing stores in Vancouver, B.C., and Florida; 7 more will remain open

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