Quantron AG officially announces insolvency

The Augsburg judiciary has officially announced the opening of insolvency proceedings: Quantron – founded in 2019 – has thus been under the supervision of a provisional insolvency administrator since 29 October. Lawyer Constantin Salm-Hoogstraeten will ensure that the company’s assets are secured until a final decision is made on the opening of insolvency proceedings. The Management Board, consisting of CEO Andreas Haller, CFO Beate Reimann and Head of Technology Rene-Christopher Wollmann, may therefore only dispose of the company’s assets with the approval of the provisional insolvency administrator. Quantron itself has announced that it intends to publish a statement on insolvency over the course of the day.

The fact that Quantron has been struggling with a financial bottleneck for several months has recently become increasingly apparent. Quantron cancelled its stand at the IAA Transportation at short notice. Some employees of the commercial vehicle manufacturer from Gersthofen are said to be waiting for their wages, as various local media in Augsburg reported last week. Quantron told electrive on Friday that it did indeed have outstanding debts – including from the workforce. However, CFO Reimann referred to the imminent conclusion of a new investor deal. It now appears that instead of a new round of financing, Quantron is facing insolvency. It is unclear what the future holds for the approximately 90 employees. However, some employees – including those who have contacted the electrive editorial team – believe that orderly insolvency is a better option than the current situation. For example, wage claims have reportedly already been filed by employees at the labour court in Augsburg.

Quantron emerged as a new player in the electric commercial vehicle market at the end of 2019 – launched by Gersthofen-based Iveco contract partner and commercial vehicle specialist Haller. Initially located in the retrofitting sector, the start-up quickly transformed itself into a system integrator with rapidly growing international ambitions. The management repeated more and more frequently that Quantron did not want to become an OEM, but a platform provider. The business model therefore consists less of the production and sale of e-trucks and more of the operation of an ecosystem. The activities were to be financed, among other things, by funds that Quantron wanted to raise in a B financing round. The company set a target of 100 to 200 million euros last year.

This is precisely the crux of the matter: this financing round failed, whereupon Andreas Haller, the founder and CEO of Quantron AG, also took on the role of CEO at the turn of the year 2023/24. He took on the management role ‘with a particular focus on the successful conclusion of the B round’, as he said at the time. However, Haller currently has to take a break: According to his own statement, he suffered a serious heart attack during the IAA and is currently recovering from it. “Sorry, but my state of health has a reason – that was and is my unwavering belief and my fight for the German economy and for sustainable technologies, which also have a great future in Germany and we definitely need them,” Haller wrote on Linkedin.

Quantron currently has around 200 vehicles on the market – including both battery and fuel-cell-powered vehicles. However, the company has not managed to take the step towards full-scale series production in the five years of its existence. To date, all trucks have also had to be individually approved by the regulatory agency TÜV, which drives up costs even further. This is one of the reasons why a customer recently switched its H2 truck orders from Quantron to Hyundai, according to industry insiders.

presse-augsburg.de, insolvenzbekanntmachungen.de (both in German)