Dutch electric bicycle manufacturer VanMoof has announced that it is bankrupt.

In a statement to employees (which was subsequently published in full on Reddit), the company said that the bankruptcy only applies to its Dutch entities, and that entities based in the US, UK, Taiwan, Japan, Germany, and France are not affected.

The statement explained: "The bankruptcy of the Dutch company Van Mouffe is necessary because, despite all efforts and hard work to prevent this, it does not have sufficient cash flow to meet its current liabilities. Bankrupting the Dutch company will increase the likelihood that Van Mouffe will be able to resume its operations."

This decision means that the buyer can effectively purchase the company's assets and operations in the Netherlands without assuming any outstanding debt. Two trustees have been appointed to oversee the process and are investigating whether the restructuring and asset sale will allow the company to continue its operations.

Van Mouffe told employees that they will be given a six-week notice period before receiving final payments, but that there is "no money to pay their salaries" in the long term.

The news is a dramatic turnaround for Van Mouffe, which only two years ago claimed to be "the best-funded e-bike company in the world" with $128 million in investments. The company suffered a gross margin loss of $13.4 million that year, according to a report in the Dutch magazine FD.

The company's e-bikes are regularly touted as the best on the market and have even made Tom's Guide's list of best electric bikes.

If you own a VanMoof bike, this news is likely to cause some waves of anxiety, as VanMoof says the e-bike "aims to keep the app and servers online and ensure ongoing service in the future, functional and rideable," but it is not clear what will happen in the coming months and years in terms of support.

For now, UK and US owners are unaffected, but this could change in an instant, as it has in the past. In the unlikely event that the company's servers go offline, we recommend downloading the unique digital key associated with that model.

Cowboy, a rival e-bike company, has developed an app called Bikey (iOS version available here) that allows users to download key codes. However, we recommend downloading it immediately in case VanMoof's servers go offline.

More worryingly, the bankruptcy announcement will halt all repairs and deliveries of e-bike parts in the Netherlands. Of course, this could be reversed if the company finds a buyer.