Retailer Leapp files bankruptcy: 4 other notable Dutch startups that went bankrupt recently

Of late, several global corporates had declared bankruptcy due to numerous reasons from various parts of the world. From a technical point of view, one has to understand that Business is a cycle that comprised of four phases — Boom, Slump, Recession, and Recovery. If the business is nowhere to be seen in any of these phases, then one can clearly make out that it’s heading towards ‘Bankruptcy’. 

Leapp declared bankrupt

Recently,  Amsterdam-based retailer Leapp, who sells used and refurbished Apple devices was declared bankrupt recently. Having said that, the 24 branches of Leapp in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany will remain closed for the time being. As of now, the bankruptcy trustee is currently investigating the possibilities for a restart, since several parties are showing interest in taking over Leapp. 

For the uninitiated, the company started in 2011 as an online store and went on to grow substantially. With the 24th store opened in Delft last April, Leapp employs around 200 people in total. 

What is Bankruptcy?

As per the Internet definition, “Bankruptcy is a legal term for when a person or business cannot repay their outstanding debts or where you’re declared unable to repay your debts.“

Having said the Leapp is not the first company to go bankrupt, as many business firms have lost their glory in the past. Given below is the list of top 4 tech dutch startups that went bankrupt. 

#1 Yippie!

Yippie, an Amsterdam-based startup that used to help consumers shop smarter was declared Bankrupt last year. This online shopping plugin had a built-in automatic price comparison extension for browsers that compares every price you see, while you’re shopping. However, over 2,500 retailers were connected to the platform, and 70 thousand consumers used the tool. 

In fact, the company received the award for Best Retail Innovation and an Accenture Innovation Award as well. 

But to err is human! 

The company made a few stupid and classic mistakes, according to Kroon, as he doesn’t want to elaborate on what exactly happened. Having said that, Kroon decided to resolve the issues and wanted to launch an alternative product, probably Yippie v2.0. At the time of writing this article, Yippie is still non-functional and it appears to be dead.

#2 Printr

Even now, the 3D printing technology is a niche market, where only a modest portion of consumers has access to. In an attempt to capitalize the 3D printing market, the team of Douwe Bart Mulder (CEO), Cecile van der Waal (COO) and Chris ter Beke (CTO) started Printr. The company wanted to streamline the 3D printing experience and make it accessible to everyone. 

In fact, the company also received 750.000 euro in seed funding from a group of informal investors. Even the startup planned to use this money to develop the platform ‘Formide’, where the users can find, configure and print their 3D models. However, most of the people didn’t connect well with the concept of 3D printing, which resulted in Printr to force stop its operational developments last October.

#3 Tinker 

Yet another failed startup, Tinker aimed at providing a smooth, unique yet cheap transportations between the airport and destination. Started in 2012, Tinker served around 45,000 passengers in the Netherlands. However, due to miserable planning and some miscalculations, Tinker ended up with lots of debts to many taxi companies that drove their customers for them. 

Furthermore, their investment on IATA codes proved to be suicidal, failed miserably, and not profitable enough for the Tinker, leading to bankruptcy.

#4 Red Tulip Systems

On January 31, 2017, Red Tulip Systems received €300,000 from UNIIQ investment fund for product optimization of WorkFone. For the uninitiated, the product delivers a new virtual mobile communication service, which is multiple identities with separate telephone numbers on a single mobile to clients like government and law enforcement agencies. 

However, the company filed for bankruptcy just after 5 months. In a post of their website, founder Rob Sutter states: “The biggest contributing factor was complexity. I thought we had minimized it. I was wildly wrong.” 

Stay tuned to Silicon Canals for more updates in the tech startup world.