Canoo

How it happened

Canoo was a US electric-vehicle startup valued around $2.4B after a 2020 SPAC merger, pitching modular EVs and subscription models. It struggled with chronic cash shortages, leadership turnover, and minimal production. Employees saw the end coming: Glassdoor reviews were flagging critically low cash and imminent layoffs by mid-2023, and described leadership chasing a stream of side projects while the flagship vehicle slipped and pay stayed frozen for years. In the final months, insiders recounted rolling furloughs — staff brought back only to be furloughed again, then laid off outright. Canoo filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and liquidation in January 2025, wiping out roughly 99% of its value.

Employee accounts paraphrase anonymous, unverified reviews posted publicly on Glassdoor ↗. See our methodology.