Lime is buying Boosted's assets and IP
Boosted was an early Kickstarter success story but is now basically defunct.
Electric scooter company Lime is buying the designs, software, parts and test equipment of Boosted, according to The Verge. While neither Lime nor the electric skateboard company has made an announcement, some Reddit posts and patent files seemingly have confirmed the news. Additionally, two former Boosted employees have also told The Verge that Lime has been working on buying Boosted’s IP since late last year. It’s unclear whether Lime is interested in continuing to manufacture electric skateboards or if the company simply wants to leverage the insights and engineering behind Boosted’s technology.
Originally, Boosted had planned to be acquired by Yamaha, but the deal fell through. Sanjay Dastoor, Boosted co-founder and ex-CEO, said in a Reddit post that ““Lime has purchased all the assets and IP of the company. As far as I can tell, this includes design files, software and code, diagnostics, parts and test equipment.” According to Dastoor, “Lime also appears to be in possession of everything at Boosted’s headquarters in Mountain View, including access to the building.”
According to The Verge, Boosted started missing vendor payments and several executives left the company earlier this year. More recently, the company announced that it would lay off most of its workforce while it looked for a buyer. There have been no updates since, and customers have been left in the dark -- new orders and repairs haven’t been fulfilled. Dastoor said that he’s trying to help address customers’ needs and urges them to contact Lyme rather than Boosted.
Boosted created some decent products, so it’s a shame to see the company struggle. It’s impossible to say what will become of the company’s technology once it’s in the hands of Lime, but hopefully Boosted’s customers at least get the boards and repairs that they paid for.