Boosted lays off ‘a significant portion’ of team as it looks for a buyer

Published March 4, 2020

Boosted, the startup behind the Boosted Boards and, more recently, the Boosted Rev electric scooter, has laid off “a significant portion” of its team, the company announced today. The company is now actively seeking a buyer.

Boosted attributes the layoffs to the costs of developing, producing and maintaining electric vehicles and the “unplanned challenge with the high expense of the US-China tariff war,” Boosted CEO Jeff Russakow and CTO John Ulmen wrote in a blog post.

“The Boosted brand will continue to pursue strategic options under new ownership,” they wrote.

Boosted, which got its start back in 2012, made its first foray outside of electric skateboards last year with the launch of an electric scooter. Boosted says more than 100,000 riders have traveled tens of millions of miles on the company’s vehicles.

“We are extremely proud of what our company has accomplished, and gratified to see so many happy customers riding their Boosted vehicles every day,” Russakow and Ulmen wrote.

This perhaps should not come as a surprise. For starters, micromobility is a hard business — one that no company can confidently say it has cracked. Meanwhile, The Verge reported earlier this month that the company was at risk of running out of money. On top of that, Boosted reportedly struggled to pay its vendors for the electric scooter.

“To Boosted’s customers and community, we’d like to thank you for your passionate support and encouragement over the last nine years,” Ulmen and Russakow wrote. “It’s been the thrill of our lives to spend time with you and help shape the future of mobility together. To the Boosted team, you made this company a special place, created multiple generations of incredibly innovative products, and created a compelling global brand; thank you so much for your hard work and dedication over the years.”

Boosted nabs $60M as the electric skateboard maker looks to build something new

Published December 20, 2018

Boosted has scored some serious cash as it looks to move beyond the world of electric skateboards to conquer new forms of personal transportation.

The startup announced today that it has closed a $60 million round of Series B funding co-led by Khosla Ventures and iNovia Capital. Stanford-StartX Fund and Bay Meadows also participated in the round. Boosted has now raised north of $70 million.

Founded in 2012, the company is the most recognizable name in the growing field of electric skateboards, but Boosted is now looking to grow its ambitions to new personal transportation verticals in the “light vehicle type” category.

So, does this mean Boosted is building a scooter?

Well, that certainly seems like a serious possibility, though we mainly just have a statement from Khosla Ventures partner Samir Kaul to go off of at the moment.

“From day one, Boosted has been built as a scalable light electric vehicle company that can expand its portfolio to all kinds of vehicle form factors, including perfecting the vehicle types we see on the street today, and introducing others that are more novel,” Kaul wrote in a release. “We’re very much looking forward to 2019 and sharing what is coming next.”

The company’s bread-and-butter has long been their longboards, but they switched things up a little bit this year when they introduced the $749 Boosted Mini S. The shortboard shrunk the company’s form factor, but more critically lowered the cost of entry to their line of products.

The company also pushed further into the high-end with the $1,599 Boosted Stealth. More interestingly, the new line of hardware started being built entirely in-house. The wheels, the decks and the trucks are all Boosted-built.

Review: $749 Boosted Mini S electric skateboard nails it

With $60 million in fresh funding, investors are obviously channeling some of their newfound excitement in bike and scooter transportation platforms into the Boosted brand. While the on-demand platforms have largely been the ones gathering venture cash to date, Boosted has developed a pretty solid brand name for itself in the electric skateboard space, one that can probably step into new vehicle verticals with a certain level of prestige already attached.