Gravaa B.V., the Dutch developer of the Kinetic Air Pressure System (KAPS) used by Team Visma-Lease a Bike, has been declared bankrupt by the court in Oost-Brabant, though industry parties have already expressed interest in taking over the company's assets.
The court issued the ruling on January 20, covering both Gravaa B.V. and its subsidiary Gravaa Production B.V., according to Dutch bankruptcy filings. Mr R.A.M.L. van Oeijen of De Voort Advocaten in Tilburg has been appointed bankruptcy trustee.
Gravaa's marketing manager Marcel Müller confirmed the bankruptcy proceedings directly to Velora, and shared a statement from CEO and Founder Gertjan van Ginderen.
"Gravaa has started serial production in the Netherlands since last year and things were going quite well," the statement said. "The partnership and use of Gravaa by Team Visma | Lease a Bike helped us and there was concrete interest from other road teams and gravel racers."
The Eindhoven-based company spent a decade developing KAPS, a self-contained mechatronic system integrated into wheel hubs that allows riders to adjust tyre pressure via a handlebar button while riding. Powered entirely by wheel rotation, the system requires approximately four watts at 25 kph to operate.
The technology achieved its highest-profile success at the 2024 UCI Gravel World Championships, when Marianne Vos suffered a puncture with around three kilometres remaining. Because KAPS could continuously pump air into the tyre while she rode, after sealant sealed the puncture Vos maintained enough pressure to contest and win the final sprint against Lotte Kopecky.
The system was first deployed at Paris-Roubaix in 2023, where riders used it to lower pressure for cobbled sectors and raise it for paved roads. Gravaa had established partnerships with DT Swiss and Reserve, with complete wheelsets retailing between €3,898 and €4,398.
Despite the consumer launch and professional success, the company could not achieve the order volume needed to sustain operations.
"It was difficult to get enough orders to be able to scale turnover and make any margin," the statement continued. "We all see the financial struggling the bicycle industry is still facing after corona, and this made it hard to get significant orders. Even though we have the option to produce Gravaa high-volume, low-cost, it turned out that converting this capability into sustained OE orders proved challenging in the current market environment."
Gravaa confirmed that several industry parties have shown interest in acquiring the assets and restarting the company.
"We are ready for it and hope this will lead to a stable solution and the success of Gravaa we aim for," he said.
For existing users, the system remains functional. "The app and back-end will stay operational, and [Gravaa] has products in stock," the brand explained. This means teams and individual racers can continue using the technology in upcoming races.
The news follows a damaging sequence of blows for the cycling industry, with Canyon announcing 320 layoffs earlier this week. worrying shadow on the brands attempting the boldest innovation, with Gravaa's system amongst the most successful major technological experiment in recent pro racing history.
Cover image: Marianne Vos riding the Gravaa adjustable tyre system at the 2024 Gravel World championships, credit: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com
