Total raised averaged per day over approximately 11.5 years from founding to bankruptcy or shutdown. This is not measured cash burn. Methodology
Funding: First-day declaration (more than $330M over five rounds, incl. about $35M of 2025 convertible notes)
Current status
Chapter 11 (filed Dec 16, 2025, S.D. Tex.); equipment sold for $1M (closed May 7, 2026) and IP sold to Transform AMP on a $2.01M credit bid from the DIP lender (closed June 5, 2026); estate still in Chapter 11
The rise & fall
12 moments · 2014–2026
The key moments, with employee sentiment along the way.
2014
🌱
2014
Founded in San Francisco
Khaled Hassounah and John de Souza set out to swap EV batteries at robotic stations for fleets.
Co-founder John de Souza tells TechCrunch there are tens of stations and a few hundred vehicles; the money is the first close of a hoped-for $75M round.
Glassdoor reviews track the turn: before the September 2025 layoffs most employees rated Ample highly, and those posting afterwards said the closure came without notice and faulted leadership and the handling of spending, yet nearly all still praised their colleagues.
Dec 16 ’25
🪦
Dec 16 ’25
Files Chapter 11 — joins the Unitard Club 💔
Ample files in Houston with two full-time employees and a $6M bankruptcy loan from Twelve Bridge Capital.
💬 entries paraphrase anonymous, unverified reviews posted publicly on Glassdoor ↗; dated facts carry their source.
How it happened
Ample built robotic stations that swap an electric vehicle’s battery modules, aimed at ride-hailing and delivery fleets. Khaled Hassounah and John de Souza founded it in 2014. A $160M Series C in August 2021 was followed that November by a Blackstone-led round that Reuters, citing a source, said valued it at more than $1B.
It raised more than $330M and ran deployments with Stellantis in Madrid and Mitsubishi Fuso in Japan, but its restructuring officer told the bankruptcy court it could deploy the technology and lacked the money to scale it. Ample filed for Chapter 11 in Houston on December 16, 2025, with two full-time employees left.
Its factory equipment sold for $1M and its intellectual property on a $2.01M credit bid from the bankruptcy lender. Before the September 2025 layoffs most employees rated Ample highly and praised the team and the technology, though several described frequent changes of direction.
Reviewers posting after the cuts said the closure came without notice and faulted leadership and the handling of spending, yet nearly all still praised their colleagues.
Source: Reuters (Nov 10, 2021): Blackstone-led round with Banco Santander, valued at more than $1B per a source familiar with the financing (peak keyed to $1B; round size $50M per Reuters, $30M per TechCrunch); PitchBook via Reuters: $890M at the Aug 2021 $160M Series C. First-day declaration (Dkt. 3, Case 25-90817, S.D. Tex.): more than $330M raised incl. about $35M of 2025 convertible notes; over 200 employees at peak, two at filing. Verita docket: auction cancelled, equipment sale $1,000,000 closed May 7, 2026; Gordian fee application (Dkt. 299): IP sold to Transform AMP, LLC on a $2.01M credit bid from DIP lender Twelve Bridge Capital, closed June 5, 2026.
