Pix, a startup that created digital LED backpacks, shuts down. What happened

Pix, a Ukrainian startup that created animated backpacks, has announced the company’s shutdown, as one of the co-founders of Pix, Margaret Rimek, posted on her Facebook page.

Officially, the company suspended operations back in January, but only now has it announced it publicly. According to Margaret, the COVID-19 pandemic and the crisis of 2020 “hit” the company the hardest.

Throughout Pix’s existence, it has created and sold about 15,000 backpacks for customers in more than 60 countries. However, some of Pix Mini’s orders from its latest crowdfunding campaign failed to ship to customers. The startup’s apps and products will continue to work.

“Together with the board of directors, we decided to close the project, mothball it, and transfer it to our IoT Hub accelerator for a possible restart in the future, under more appropriate conditions,” the Pix co-founder writes.

According to Forbes, IoT Hub founder Roman Kravchenko will take on the role of interim CEO, conduct financial and technical audits, collect documentation and start looking for new founders. The first founders can sell their share and keep the brand, name, and product. 

In the beginning, the IoT Hub makes all the commitments and decides how much equity the founders will have. After fundraising and finding a team, it will hand over management to the new founders.