Days after furloughing dozens of employees without pay, EV startup Canoo has placed its remaining employees on “mandatory unpaid leave” until at least the end of the year, TechCrunch reported on Friday. He said he told them he would take it. An internal email seen by the store said employees would be locked out of Canoo’s system by Friday and benefits would continue through the end of the month.
The report comes after Canoe announced last week that it was shutting down its Oklahoma factory and furloughing employees while it worked to “finally secure the capital needed to move forward.” This is in response to this. As TechCrunch notes, the company reported it only had about $700,000 left in the bank last month.
The company also announced on Friday a 20:1 reverse stock split, effective December 24th. Kanu said the purpose of the merger was to maintain the stock’s listing on the Nasdaq exchange and attract a “broader group of institutional and retail investors.”
Canoo was founded in 2017 to sell electric vans and trucks to adventure-seeking customers, but until now it has primarily only made vehicles for the U.S. government. As The Verge’s Andrew Hawkins wrote last year, analysts have warned that the company is on the verge of running out of cash starting in 2022 and risks bankruptcy. Canoo has since lost a number of executives, including all of its founders. Most recently, he has served as CFO and General Counsel.