Tenways Applies for HKSE Listing, Walmart Helmet Recall, China Adds Traceability Requirement | TWR Ep 73

The Amsterdam-headquartered e-bike company filed for a main board listing on the HKSE on Feb 27th. Chinese Investment bank GF Securities acted as a sponsor for this submittal, but the company itself is backed by other investors. These include Tencent, Alibaba, and Hillhouse Ventures, which is Tenways’ current largest external investor.

The brand, which was founded in 2021, achieved profitability in the first three quarters of 2025.

Sales Data from the market research company Frost & Sullivan suggests that Tenways was the fastest growing brand in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg (the Benelux region) from 2022 to 2024. The company sold more than 50,000 units of its CGO800S dutch city cruiser within four years after its launch. Tenways has also won Red Dot and German Design Awards

Tenways’ revenue in the first three quarters of 2024 was 54 million euros, and it was valued at $25.1 million dollars in January of the same year. Its adjusted net profit in the first three quarters of 2025 was 1.24 million euros.

Our Take:
Our first experience testing Tenways’ e-bikes came in 2023 with the belt-driven CGO600 Pro. Since then, we have been consistently impressed by the brand’s design aesthetic, responsive pedal assist systems, and overall quality.

If the company successfully goes public and gets more investors and capital, it could go a long way toward helping Tenways expand into new markets and develop new products. We can’t wait to see what the future brings for the brand!

The recalled helmets were sold for around $30 at Walmart (both in-store and online) from Jan-Sept 2025. According to the CPSC, they do not comply with mandatory retention system and positional stability requirements. As such, they may not stay on the rider’s head during a crash, which could result in injury or death. So far, no incidents or injuries have been reported.

The helmets are called 360 Degree Rechargeable Light-Up Bike Helmets. According to the CPSC, they “were sold in size large (L), fitting a head circumference of about 22.8 to 24 inches. The helmets have a black exterior with a built-in LED lighting system, black straps, black buckle, and have a black plastic knob at the back of the helmet for adjusting the fit. “Concord” is printed on the back of the helmet.”

Todson’s website lists all lot numbers as being affected. If you own one of the affected helmets, stop using it immediately and destroy it by cutting off the straps. Then, you can contact Todson for a full refund after sending photos of the destroyed helmet to [email protected]

Note that the helmet contains a lithium ion battery, which shouldn’t be thrown in the trash or recycling—contact your local household hazardous waste center for disposal instructions.

The China Automobile Certification Center Company, Ltd. (CCAP), recently released a statement saying that all e-bikes and their batteries, chargers, and helmets must now display a China Compulsory Certification (CCC) certification mark, along with a unique QR code.

The CCC is a regulatory body similar to our Underwriter’s Laboratories (UL) or Europe’s Conformité Européenne (CE). These marks, which ensure compliance to certification and testing standards, can be printed on or molded into a product’s exterior.

The implementation of this requirement allows regulators to scan e-bikes and components to track their certification history. In theory, this would link to its documentation, its manufacturer, and possibly even more information related to its production, including the batch number.

It appears that this is China’s effort to reduce counterfeit products both by making them harder to reproduce and also easier to identify. It could also allow for more targeted recalls and ensure that products like lithium-ion batteries are manufactured to established safety standards.

The addition of CCC mark/QR code requirements will naturally require more complexity to the process of making and selling products. According to MPR China Certification, “Certified organizations are required to ensure one-to-one correspondence between certificates and QR codes, establish a mark usage management system, and maintain proper records to guarantee traceability and regulatory compliance under the CCC framework.”

Products that are newly certified need to meet these requirements immediately (as of March 1st, 2026), while those with existing certifications have a year to meet the new standards (March 1st, 2027).

Our Take:
The implementation of a stamp requirement mirrors UL and CE requirements on many products in the US and EU, giving consumers confidence in the safety and reliability of their purchases. Considering that counterfeit products can be unsafe, we support any measures that serve to make e-bikes and their components safer and more difficult to fake.

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