After losing its CEO on November 12, Torquing Group’s failed drone company Zano has revealed how it has spent the £2.3 million raised on Kickstarter.
Zano’s executives have issued an apology to all customers and supporters for the lack of information from their side.
The start-up, Europe’s most successful Kickstarter project, revealed that the largest sum of the money was invested in stock and manufacturing (46%), followed by wages (14%), purchase taxes (9%) and on Kickstarter and payment fees (5%).
Other expenses included tooling costs (4%), miscellaneous expenses (4%), professional fees (3%), research and development (2%) and others of 1% or less such as sub-contractors, accommodation and rent.
The company blamed the prototypes’ problems on upgrades that "represented technical challenges which added to an already complicated project".
"Ultimately these upgrades coupled with delays caused by the creation of a bespoke and automatic testing rig had significant financial and timeline impacts upon the project."
The expenditure breakdown has been issued with an apologise from the start-up’s board of directors. In a statement, they said: "We would like to make a sincere apology for the understandable disappointment felt by all of those that have supported the project.
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"We find ourselves in the position of having never pursued voluntary liquidation prior to the events of recent weeks, meaning that we have had to operate with caution to ensure that we have undertaken the correct procedural steps to wind up the company and are doing so with the best intentions."
Backers of the project and those waiting to receive a mini-drone, took to social media to express their disappointment.
In a forum, user ‘daven’ wrote that the whole thing is "a bit of leap" and that Zano has changed its wording now claiming that "the upgrades which we [Zano] were forced to implement caused all the issues".
Some 600 of the 12,000 backers did receive their device. However, the mini-drone failed to impress. Another user wrote: "Black Zano owner since 14 october. Tried several outdoor and a few indoor flights but not been able to put it in the air for more than 10 seconds."
