Here is an unofficial update:
There has now been a further official statement where they confirm the very recent news that emerged, and give a date for when operations will cease.
Sad. Even though I can understand the motivation it was imho not fair to start the Loom Kickstarter under these conditions. It is clear that āimminent threat of company insolvence and bancruptcy within the next monthsā in the Kickstarter risk section wouldnāt have helped sales - but omitting the elephant in the room prevented backers to judge the very high risk realistically, which occurs to me, as said, as quite unfair,
I still wish the Aodyo team all the best, Sylphyo and Anyma Phi are great products, and the Omega and the Loom were at least great ideas that would definitely have been worth to exist!
November 1st, which is roughly a week from now.
in fairness, I suspect Aoydo did not think this was a riskā¦ rather it was a cash flow issue, that they could resolve - and āsaveā both the company and the Omega.
those at Aoydo would have needed some optimism, as the alternative was to shutdown, and fail all the backers of the Omega,
was this overly optimisticā¦ well with perfect hindsight, sureā¦ but at the time?
but indeed, hindsight, this was unfair on Loom backers.
Aoydo had a reputation, had delivered before - people backed on that basis, it didnāt really look like a risk. it looked pretty safe.
so very understandable they are angry and upset (putting it mildly)!
(Omega backers tooā¦ some of those are potentially out 800-1500 euros )
Letās hope some kind of āPhoenixā solution can be found, and that backers for both Omega and Loom might get somethingā¦ and also the tech/product from Aoydo can be saved.
also I wish those at Aoydo well, theyāve lost 10 years worth of work, that they were passionate about, and now have to find new jobs etc.
been there , done that ā¦ its rough
The insolvency was officially started in June, thus two months after the end of the Kickstarter (and as this probably needs preparation I would assume that the necessity of that step must have been clear much sooner). I honestly donāt get what they were hoping for how optimal the Loom fabrication process could have worked out - having Looms that they can sell (after all the ones for the backers already being reserved) two months after the end of Kickstarter?
I wrote off the Omega (which I also backed) as typical Kickstarter risk. But the Loom campaign was imho not ok. If they would have needed much more money, either per Loom or in preorder quantity then they should have set the Kickstarter goal accordingly. With the current setup I donāt see how even the most optimal production timing could have prevented having to file for insolvency.
But it is moot to speculate, I guess that train has departed.
well theyād have done cash flow projections, to forecast what they needed etc.
seems like they needed both loom to bring in short term cash , but also the new investment funding they mentioned.
the later fell through, I suspect its that , which has taken them down, as it was a required part of the projection. but indeed, its all speculation without seeing forecast etc.
unfortunately, cash flow is what kills most small companiesā¦
but indeed, as I said before, having TWO new projects running simultaneously for a small company is a large riskā¦ few projects run smoothly and without delay !
ouch, sorry to hear you got hit on both fronts
indeed, sadly, its all down to what happens with during administration.
there is one small ray of hopeā¦(perhaps)
this is possibly something that the administrator could explore, as the clock kind of stops on closureā¦ though, ofc, this may or may not play out to the benefit of backers.
The state they went into in June doesnt actually count as insolvency, but it is a protected state which might lead to insolvency. ie there is a risk of insolvency being the outcome, and obviously we now know thats what recently happened.
I think the change to a status of full on insolvency got published in the official register today.
It sounds like SCP BTSG have been appointed as liquidators to manage this process.