Money does not save a bad business: from Northvolt’s $5.8 billion of debt to Quibi’s $1.75 billion raise, these 15 companies each had millions or billions in funding and still failed. The pattern is almost always the same: a product people did not want enough, costs that grew faster than revenue, or a plan that depended on everything going right.
Welcome to Alux.com, the place where future billionaires come to get inspired. If you’re not subscribed yet, you’re missing out. Prefer video? Watch this article here:
Which well-funded businesses failed?
| Company | Money behind it | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| Northvolt | $1.6 billion initial investors; $5.8 billion debt at the end | Chapter 11 in November 2024; Swedish bankruptcy March 2025 |
| Builder.ai | $230 million round in 2023 | Insolvency in May 2025 |
| Nikola | Valuation once above Ford’s | Chapter 11 in February 2025 |
| Humane | About $230 to $241 million raised | Sold technology to HP for $116 million in February 2025 |
| Fisker | SPAC listing in 2020 | Chapter 11 in June 2024 |
| WeWork | $12.8 billion raised, $47 billion peak value | Chapter 11 in November 2023 |
| Quibi | $1.75 billion | Shut down 2020 |
| Theranos | More than $700 million; $9 billion peak value | Dissolved in 2018 |
| GNC | Public company, decades old | Chapter 11 in June 2020 |
| Essential | About $330 million (reported) | Closed February 2020 |
| Jawbone | Once valued at over $3 billion (reported) | Liquidated July 2017 |
| Juicero | $120 million | Closed 2017 |
| Better Place | About $850 million | Bankrupt May 2013 |
| Solyndra | $1.22 billion raised, $535 million US loan guarantee | Bankrupt September 2011 |
| Laundroid (Seven Dreamers) | $104 million (reported) | Bankrupt |
Our lens: we sorted each failure into one of four causes: no market demand, unit economics that never worked, a plan that needed other companies to cooperate, or a hardware-and-capital race lost to bigger rivals.
1. Northvolt
Swedish battery maker Northvolt was founded in 2015 by two former Tesla executives and was meant to give Europe its own electric-vehicle battery champion. It drew about $1.6 billion from investors and lenders, including Volkswagen, BMW and Goldman Sachs, and signed a 2 billion euro order from BMW.
Then it fell behind on production. BMW cancelled its contract in June 2024, and on November 21, 2024 the company filed for Chapter 11 in the US, saying it had $30 million in cash against $5.8 billion in debt. Sweden followed with a bankruptcy filing on March 12, 2025, the largest in modern Swedish industrial history. The lesson: scaling manufacturing proved harder than raising money.
2. Builder.ai
Builder.ai promised to make building an app “as easy as ordering pizza” using artificial intelligence. It raised a $230 million round in 2023 from investors including Microsoft and SoftBank, and Microsoft planned to integrate its technology.
In May 2025 the company announced insolvency proceedings after creditors seized $50 million it had borrowed in October 2024, and it laid off about 80% of its staff. The story ran ahead of the business, in a period when “AI” attracted money faster than customers.
3. Nikola
Founded in 2014 and named after Nikola Tesla, Nikola set out to build electric and hydrogen trucks. After it went public in June 2020, its market value briefly exceeded Ford’s.
Nikola filed on February 19, 2025 and sought to sell its remaining assets, including more than 100 trucks. Heavy-duty trucks need factories, fueling networks and customers who buy at scale, and the money ran out first.
4. Humane
Humane, founded by former Apple employees, raised roughly $230 to $241 million for the AI Pin, a screenless wearable meant to replace the smartphone. In May 2024 it was reportedly seeking a buyer at $750 million to $1 billion.
In February 2025 HP bought Humane’s technology, patents and most of its staff for $116 million, and the AI Pin itself stopped working on February 28, 2025. The product was priced like a phone but did less than one.
5. Fisker
Fisker Inc. went public through a SPAC merger in 2020 and launched its Ocean electric SUV in 2023. By early 2024 it had run into severe financial trouble, was delisted from the NYSE and had laid off most of its employees, and it entered bankruptcy in June 2024.
A new car brand needs time and cash to reach scale, and Fisker ran out of both.
6. WeWork
WeWork raised $12.8 billion at valuations as high as $47 billion, and was once Manhattan’s largest private tenant. It offered more than desks: legal, IT and community services for growing businesses. Its 2019 IPO attempt was cancelled after investors balked at its governance, and the company went public by SPAC in 2021.
WeWork sought protection on November 6, 2023, shed leases and real estate, and emerged on May 30, 2024, with Yardi-affiliated investors taking a 60% stake. In 2025 it reported positive EBITDA while still spending on upgrades. The mismatch was long-term leases paid for with short-term memberships.
7. Quibi
Founded by Jeffrey Katzenberg and led by Meg Whitman as CEO, Quibi raised $1.75 billion to stream ten-minute shows built for phones. It launched in April 2020, at the start of the pandemic, and shut down in December 2020 after missing subscriber targets.
Its library sold to Roku in January 2021 for less than $100 million. There was no real demand for the format it invented.
8. Theranos
Theranos was valued at $9 billion at its peak in 2013 and 2014, after raising more than $700 million. The promise was that a few drops of blood from a finger prick could run a large battery of tests.
The technology could not do what the company said, and what remained of Theranos was dissolved in September 2018. The product did not exist in the form investors were shown.
9. GNC
GNC has sold vitamins, supplements and sports nutrition since 1935, when David Shakarian opened his first shop in Pittsburgh. The pandemic hit store traffic hard, and the company went into Chapter 11 in June 2020, closing at least 800 stores. A court-supervised sale to Harbin Pharmaceutical Group followed in October 2020.
We covered more failing businesses in the Covid era here:
A store-based model with fixed costs struggled once foot traffic fell.
10. Essential Products
Founded in 2015 by Android co-founder Andy Rubin, Essential reached unicorn status in August 2017 with investors including Amazon, Tencent and Foxconn. It brought one smartphone to market, the Essential Phone, and cancelled its next flagship in 2018.
The company closed on February 12, 2020, saying it saw “no clear path” to deliver its new device. The phone market was crowded, with no clear reason to buy this one.
What isn’t a bust is joining the Alux crew, a community of future billionaires. Subscribe for daily inspiration.
11. Jawbone
Founded as AliphCom in 1999, Jawbone made Bluetooth headsets, speakers and fitness trackers, and was reportedly worth more than $3 billion at one point. Tough competition in wearables, inventory shortages and executive departures followed.
The company was liquidated in July 2017. It was a hardware business squeezed by bigger rivals.
12. Juicero
Juicero sold a Wi-Fi juicer that pressed pre-packaged produce packs sold only through the company. It launched in March 2016 at $699, cut the price to $399 in January 2017, and had raised $120 million.
The product was mocked when it emerged that the packs could be squeezed by hand about as well as the machine did it, and the company ceased operating in 2017. Orange ya glad you didn’t buy one? The machine solved a problem nobody had.
13. Better Place
Founded by Shai Agassi in 2007, Better Place wanted to end the car industry’s dependence on oil by swapping electric-car batteries at stations, in about five minutes, by robots. About $850 million of private capital went in.
The plan depended on carmakers building swappable batteries, and only Renault did. Fewer than 1,000 cars were deployed in Israel and around 400 in Denmark. Better Place filed for bankruptcy in Israel in May 2013, and its remaining assets sold in November 2013 for only $450,000. The plan needed other companies to cooperate.
14. Solyndra
Solyndra made cylindrical solar panels using CIGS thin-film technology. It raised about $1.22 billion and received a $535 million US Department of Energy loan guarantee in 2009. It could not compete with cheaper conventional silicon panels and filed for bankruptcy on September 1, 2011.
A four-year joint federal investigation ended in 2015 without criminal charges. Conventional panels got cheaper faster than Solyndra could scale.
15. Seven Dreamers Laboratories (Laundroid)
Aluxers, imagine a machine that washes, dries, irons and folds your laundry. Seven Dreamers built the Laundroid to do the folding part and reportedly raised $104 million, but it was slow and sometimes could not fold a simple t-shirt. The company filed for bankruptcy in Japan in 2019.
If you want to know more about companies on the verge of failing, read 15 Companies That Will Soon Go Bankrupt. The robotics problem was not solved when the money ran out.
What do these failures have in common?
Funding buys time, not proof. Quibi and Humane bet on new formats and did not find enough buyers. Others, such as Northvolt, WeWork and Solyndra, had real products but costs that grew faster than revenue. Before raising money, test whether anyone will pay, and what each extra customer costs you.
Aluxers, sh*t happens and startups fail. What advice would you give some of these companies? We would love to hear from you.
Keep reading
- 15 companies that will soon go bankrupt: the warning signs these failures showed early
- Why wealth is harder to lose than you think: the other side of the risk
FAQ
Why do startups fail even with millions in funding?
Because funding does not create demand. The companies above failed from weak product-market fit, unit economics that never worked, or plans that depended on other companies.
What was the biggest failure on this list?
By money, Northvolt and WeWork: Northvolt filed with $5.8 billion in debt and was the largest bankruptcy in modern Swedish industrial history, while WeWork raised $12.8 billion at a peak valuation of $47 billion.
Did WeWork shut down?
No. It sought bankruptcy protection in November 2023 and emerged on May 30, 2024, with Yardi-affiliated investors taking a 60% stake.
What happened to Humane’s AI Pin?
HP bought Humane’s technology and most of its team for $116 million in February 2025, and the AI Pin stopped working on February 28, 2025.
How can founders avoid these mistakes?
Test demand before scaling, watch cost per customer, avoid plans that need partners to cooperate, and be honest with investors about what the product can do today.
How we put this list together
We chose well-funded companies whose collapse is documented in court filings, company announcements and public records, and refreshed the list with failures from 2023 to 2025. Entries from the earlier version that rested on legal or personal disputes were removed.
Last updated: October 2026.
