Dutch transport firm Hardt Hyperloop declared bankrupt
Hardt Hyperloop has gone bankrupt, the bankruptcy administrator Sjoerd Warringa confirmed to RTL Z. He could not comment on the cause of the bankruptcy, nor whether there are any plans for a restart.
Hardt Hyperloop was founded in 2017 by a group of students from Delft University of Technology. They hoped to revolutionize public transport with a hyperloop system that transports people in capsules through a vacuum tube at high speed.
To develop this idea, the company raised tens of millions in subsidies and investments over the past decade. With this money, Hardt Hyperloop built a test center in Veendam, featuring a 420-meter-long tube, among other things. Some 18 months ago, the company performed a successful test run in Veendam for 300 guests, including high-tech ambassador Prince Constantijn.
According to RTL, the company’s most recent annual accounts show that Hardt Hyperloop’s survival depended on capital injections. The report submitted to the Chamber of Commerce in October stated that Hardt Hyperloop had sufficient funds to fulfill its financial obligations until January 2026.
The company stated that it was in talks with interested investors about additional capital injections, and the management was “cautiously optimistic” about this. The bankruptcy, declared on Tuesday, shows that they were unsuccessful in these talks.
