Earlier today, we brought you the news that Damon Inc., the startup electric motorcycle manufacturer that once promised a 200 mph, 200 miles of range, all-electric superbike called the HyperSport, was being sued by multiple parties. One was a former investor, another was the company's landlord in Canada, and one of which we're still digging into. Hint, hint, it's former CEO and founder of Damon, Jay Giraud.
But buried in its 10-K and other filings was a stat that we couldn't believe, and that was how many employees the company had. Or rather, how many employees it had left.
At the height of Damon Inc.'s growth, the startup hyped up its forthcoming manufacturing facility in British Columbia, Canada, announced all the reservations it had from would-be customers totaling some $100 million, and stated it had hundreds of employees working on the project. That all has been cleansed from the brand's archives, and made way for SEO-generated slop such as "7 YouTube Motorcycle Channels To Subscribe To In 2023," and "7 Female Motorcycle Influencers You Should Follow On Instagram."
However, according to the company's 10-K filings, the current roster of folks working at Damon Inc. is just 13 individuals. And two of those are contractors. Folks, I don't know about you, but that doesn't sound like enough to produce the aforementioned all-electric motorcycles.
According to the brand's 10-K filing, "As of the date of this report, the Company has a total of 13 employees and contractors. Of these, 11 are dedicated to our motorcycle business, including 11 full-time employees. By location, 10 team members are based in Canada, one in the U.S. Additionally, two employees support the SAVES business: one focuses on sales and marketing efforts while the other handles pre- and post-sale support."
It added, "None of its employees are members of any unions."
Those numbers are down from 24 employees last year, with 21 being full-time, and only 3 contractors. And that was down from 52 in 2023, with 44 being full-time, and "one part-time and one co-op employee, 4 contractors, and 2 on leave of absence," according to that year's 10-K filing. I tried accessing its 10-Ks prior to 2023, but they, too, have seemingly gone away.
Apart from 11 people supporting a business that's supposedly designed to build all-electric motorcycles for hungry reservation holders, reservations totaling around a hundred million dollars—all of which are supposedly refundable—the company is quickly pivoting to AI services, safety software, and other avenues, too. It's also supposedly building another prototype motorcycle and looking at strategic partnerships with other companies to build a more marketable, lower-priced electric motorcycle offering.
But even with manufacturing partnerships, 13 people, minus two contractors, is just not enough to do any of those things at the scale at which Damon promised when it burst onto the stage. Likewise, with regard to its ever-changing production facility, one that was meant to first be in Canada only to hop across to the U.S. and now maybe back to Canada, the issues we reported on with its back-rent, and subsequent lawsuit due to failure to pay, could make that impossible.
We've reached out to Damon with a host of questions, but at the time of writing, we haven't heard back from the company. We'll update this post if and when we hear back. But at the moment, it's hard to see the HyperFighter and HyperSport ever making its way into customer hands.
