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Comment by jacquesm | Hacker News Reader

Brand, inventory, names and addresses of all of the previous buyers, servers for the lock/unlock facility and possibly more than that.

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And leases, something very people know is that Van Moof has a great corporate leasing program. All big tech offer eBike commuting options paying Van Moof Leases.

I think it is genius, the bikes are expensive to buy, but $100 a month lease including maintenance is very popular among Big tech (especially if your company pays for it).

https://support.vanmoof.com/en/support/solutions/articles/44...

How many of these do they have in the field?

They could very well be losing substantial money on that. Leases only work if the quality of what you lease is high enough that you won't be bleeding to death on the availability guarantee. Financial lease insulates the lease provider from that but if it is operational lease then whoever inherits the leases might be in for a very hard time.

100% Agree and unfortunately I don't have numbers. However, anecdotally I work for a big tech and I have one of the leases, and it is a very popular option across my colleagues. I'd probably never buy one, but with the lease I'm very happy customer. Also they gave the option to upgrade to newer models for $10 more dollars a month after a year which I think it helps them to fix operational issues. There is also in-campus maintenance which is very convenient. I think that if they operate/scale the lease business properly it could make a very good business in its own.

There are multiple of these lease suppliers and then there is Van Moof themselves, I take it your deal is with Van Moof directly. That should - assuming the new owners have actually bought the lease contracts as well - give you a priority position for spare parts. Here is the FAQ of another such provider (there is also Athlon, possibly others):

https://www.leasefiets.nl/qavanmoof/

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