Swedish smartwatch maker Kronaby files for bankruptcy
Smartwatch maker Kronaby has reportedly filed for bankruptcy in its local country of Sweden. Some 60 jobs are at risk at the company’s offices in Malmö if the outfit doesn’t find new investors soon.
Essential reading: Top fitness trackers and health gadgets
Kronaby was founded just over three years ago by four executives from Sony Mobile. The startup launched its first hybrid shortly after.
Its range currently consists of 50 men’s and 9 women’s watches across its Sekel, Apex, Nord and Carat line. The timepieces combine Scandinavian design and digital engineering together with traditional Swiss watchmaking craftsmanship. When paired with a smartphone, the watches offer a unique set of features and impressive multi-year battery life.
Revenue increased to $50m last year, from $37m in 2017 when the startup registered a $127m loss. But despite improving financial results, the company’s majority owner Goertek has pulled support for Anima, which sells Kronaby branded products. The Chinese outfit stated its pulling back from the business in order to concentrate on its core activity of electronics manufacturing.
“They decided to leave this branding business, and they also decided to do it extremely quickly, so they shut off all capital injection and support with immediate effect,” Pal Borge, CEO of Anima told Swedish publication The Local.
“They did this in December, so they left us one and a half months to find new investors, which was absolutely too short. We have a number of leads which we will continue to work on, but we have not been able to finalize them.”
Kronaby had plans to reach break-even by the end of this year and was looking for a further capital injection of a few million dollars to do so. They will now need to raise additional funds just to keep going. In the meantime, the company is attempting to keep its business on track.
“We have a platform ready and a business which should interest many, so our ambition is, together with the administrator, to find a solution,” Borge told the newspaper.
Like this article? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter and never miss out!
