EXCLUSIVE. The first Angell bicycle left the Seb factories in mid-2020. In 2025, Marc Simoncini's adventure to democratize the connected electric bicycle ends. The French manufacturer was unable to recover after the recall following a risk of frame breakage.
It was during a short call on January 23, 2025 that John Mollanger, current manager of Angell, told Numerama the news: Marc Simoncini's connected bicycle company enters into suspension of payments, the first step towards judicial liquidation. To put it more simply, Angell, it's over.
In question, a very unfortunate combination of circumstances and a misstep for which Angell pays a high price. In November 2024, a cyclist riding an Angell was in an accident because its frame broke. Angell then inspected his bikes and was forced to offer his customers a choice: change their bike for a new one or refund them in full. In both cases Angell loses.
That said, the industrial partner who builds the bike did not wish to take responsibility for this event. Angell was forced to shoulder the costs associated with the recall alone. All this, at the worst time for the company: it was seeking to complete a financing round in order to deploy its strategy for 2025. Faced with these new concerns, potential investors canceled the fundraising and Marc Simoncini, who would have participated in replenish the coffers, did not wish to commit alone.
The end result is that it is impossible for Angell to continue running his business without financing, thus marking the end of the adventure for his 25 employees, in a devastated bicycle market – after a prosperous period, bankruptcies are occurring. continue, both among the big guys and in the ecosystem of newcomers.
What impact for Angell customers?
At Numerama, John Mollanger says customers will be able to continue using their Angell bike, which no longer requires a smartphone to start. On the other hand, when the company's servers are turned off, the application will no longer work. Customers will therefore lose location, alarm notification and connected statistical collection functions. What about an open source transition to the software part to continue to evolve the bike? “ It's in reflection, we are not opposed to it », Indicates Angell’s boss.
In any case, it is a symbolic bankruptcy on the bicycle market in France, because Angell, for good or ill, had caused a lot of ink to flow. After a rushed first bike, which really failed in every way, the company had humbly revised its copy and released some really good bikes, branded Cruiser. We can recognize that, unlike many companies who become easily resentful after bad press, Angell had been a good sport and had loaned his new bikes to Numerama for a test.
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With John Mollanger, we actually shared the same ambition on Vroom: to support users' transition to soft mobility, in a France where car journeys of less than a kilometer are still far too numerous. Angell was not a bike for everyone, but offered a version of the connected e-bike off the beaten track.
