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The founder of one of Europe’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges has acquired a “significant” stake in Spyker Cars in the latest attempt to revive the 146-year-old Dutch supercar brand after a string of bankruptcies.
Ukrainian billionaire Volodymyr Nosov’s WhiteBit said on Tuesday the transaction would enable it to expand into luxury car manufacturing. Spyker, one of the world’s oldest auto brands, is more recently known for a botched acquisition of Swedish automobile group Saab.
WhiteBit and Spyker did not disclose the financial terms of the deal, but a person familiar with the matter said Nosov has taken a stake worth several hundred million euros.
“Our goal is to preserve everything that makes the brand special while helping it enter a new era of growth, innovation, and global relevance,” Nosov said.
The deal, which comes as Spyker prepares to revive a supercar that was originally showcased a decade ago, marks an unusual partnership linking a fintech player with a traditional carmaker at a time when luxury car brands are struggling with the transition to electric vehicles.
Abu Dhabi investment group CYVN last year acquired British luxury brand McLaren’s auto business from Bahraini sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat and merged it with EV start-up Forseven.
Rival Aston Martin is grappling with rising debt and cash shortage even as it has repeatedly turned to Canadian billionaire and chair Lawrence Stroll to shore up its balance sheet.
Founded in 1880 by Dutch brothers Hendrik-Jan and Jacobus Spijker, Spyker claims to have built the world’s first four-wheel-drive car in 1903, as well as fighter planes before it went into its first bankruptcy in 1925.
It was revived by Dutch entrepreneur Victor Muller in 2000, but collapsed again in 2014 after its disastrous acquisition of Saab from General Motors following the financial crisis. It exited that bankruptcy in 2015, but became insolvent again in 2021 following a period of legal disputes.
Spyker, whose cars previously competed in the Le Mans race and Formula 1, signalled its comeback last year with a statement on social media announcing that Muller had secured the brand’s intellectual property rights.
In a video posted on its website last month, Muller said the company was building its new Spyker C8 Preliator in Coventry ahead of a launch at California’s annual Quail event for luxury car brands in August.
The supercar will be powered by a twin-turbo V8 engine that will give it a top speed of over 350 kilometres per hour.
Muller said on Tuesday the reaction to the new model launch confirmed “strong demand for the return of Spyker”.
