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Bird Global Inc., the company that put electric scooters onto the sidewalks of major cities, has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Southern Florida, Bloomberg News reported. The Miami, Fla.-based company listed assets and liabilities of between $100 million and $500 million in a court filing. The filing protects the company from creditors while it seeks court approval of a plan to try to repay them. A former Uber Technologies Inc. executive, Travis VanderZanden, founded Bird in 2017. It let customers remotely unlock the scooters and rent them using an app. The model was widely copied and turned Bird into one of the fastest startups to reach a $1 billion valuation at one point. Bird shares plunged this year as scooter enthusiasm faded and in September the NYSE began delisting proceedings against the company after its average global market capitalization over a consecutive 30 trading day period fell below at least $15 million.

Troika Media Group, an advertising professional services company, filed for bankruptcy Thursday, after defaulting on debt it raised to finance the acquisition of a marketing agency last year, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. New York-based Troika filed for chapter 11 with the Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of New York with a deal to sell all of its assets to existing lender Blue Torch Finance. The creditor would swap the debt it lent to the company for assets. Troika can entertain higher and better offers and the deal is subject to court approval. “We expect that the process will be relatively short and that the company will have adequate liquidity” to operate normally throughout the process, interim CEO Grant Lyon said in an announcement Thursday. Blue Torch is also providing the company with a $11 million debtor-in-possession loan which will be used to finance the company’s bankruptcy and pay critical vendors, according to a court filing by Lyon. In June 2022, Troika defaulted on the debt it took on to acquire New York-based marketing agency Converge Direct last year for $125 million, according to Lyon. Soon after the acquisition, Troika appointed Sadiq Toama, one of the owners of Converge, as its CEO. Toama soon shut down other money-losing businesses and made Converge the company’s core business, he added. Blue Torch provided a $75 million loan to finance the deal.

Tampa’s fast-casual Mexican food chain Taco Bus has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy to restructure more than half a million dollars in debt, the Tampa Bay Business Journal reported. A Small Business Administration Emergency Injury Disaster Loan received during the pandemic accounted for $500,000 of Taco Bus’s total liabilities. The SBA loan was partially secured by $25,000 of equipment as collateral, according to the filing. Taco Bus also owes RJCE Properties LLC around $14,000 in rent and the Internal Revenue Service $11,200 for taxes to resolve four liens filed between 2018 and 2021, the filing shows. Taco Bus also received a $240,000 grant from the SBA during the pandemic, which it does not believe it must repay, according to the filing. Taco Bus was previously named one of the most popular food trucks in the U.S. after a feature on Food Network’s “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” in 2011. Taco Bus changed ownership in 2013 when Founder Rene Valenzuela sold off a majority of the company. While Valenzuela reportedly maintained a minority stake after that deal, Umar Farooq was listed as the sole owner of Taco Bus in the filing and has been listed as president of the company since 2017, according to Florida’s division of corporations. Taco Bus has 10 locations across Tampa Bay, three fewer than reported in 2019 when the company opened a location in Orlando.

Terrestrial Brewing Co. has filed for bankruptcy protection, the brewery confirmed Wednesday, Cleveland.com reported. The brewery, which opened in 2017 in the Cleveland’s Battery Park neighborhood and a short walk from Edgewater Park, listed assets of less than $50,000 and liabilities of $1 million to $10 million, according to the Cleveland Business Journal. Also, the U.S. Small Business Administration and Cleveland’s economic development department hold claims for $150,000 and $6,500, respectively. In a statement, Terrestrial owners Ryan Bennett and Ralph Sgro said that the proceedings position the brewery for the future. “After careful consideration, Terrestrial Brewing filed a chapter 11 in order to help the business to remain open while we continue to work with our lenders," according to the statement. “Due to numerous circumstances outside our control, we experienced significant delays and costs associated with the expansion project. As a result, the main component of the project, the upstairs event space, has not been completed.” Bennett and Sgro mulled a restaurant and event space expansion as far back as 2019, but the subsequent coronavirus pandemic’s economic impact curbed those plans until 2021.

Local mattress company Direct Mattress Inc. and its associated businesses filed for bankruptcy last month, following a series of lawsuits from its landlords over unpaid rent, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Bankruptcy documents reflect that the company's estimated assets and liabilities are both between $1 million and $10 million. Filed documents also reflect that the company will continue to operate. Headquartered in St. Peters, the firm has 11 store locations around the St. Louis region. This year alone, Direct Mattress has been peppered with a number of lawsuits totaling nearly $1 million in unpaid rent from half a dozen landlords. Local creditors with unsecured claims include $480,000 to Carrollton Bank; $252,176 to Dierbergs Wentzville; $99,858 to St. Louis Post-Dispatch; $260,971 to USR-DESCO Washington Crossing LLC; and $106,617 to Water Tower Development LLC.

Hello Bello, the environmentally-friendly diaper and baby products startup founded by two TV stars, filed for bankruptcy with a plan to sell its business after its pandemic-fueled expansion faltered due to rising shipping costs and inflation, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Unconditional Love, the company behind Hello Bello, founded in 2019 by actors Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard, quickly gained popularity to become the biggest direct-to-consumer diaper brand by 2021. The company’s net sales reached $200 million by 2021 when it signed up 130,000 subscribers, according to court papers filed by Chief Executive Erica Buxton. Shepard and Bell are listed as holders of more than 12% of the company’s common equity, according to a court filing. The company has a deal to sell itself to New York-based investment firm Hildred Capital Management. An investment in 2020 by private-equity firm VMG Partners helped the startup expand its product offerings as well as its reach beyond Walmart, its first retail partner, to grocery, drug and specialty retailers in the U.S. and overseas, according to the court filing. In addition to diapers, training pants and baby products the company also sells sanitizers and vitamin gummies.

Waits RV Center in West Palm Beach filed for chapter 11 protection with 41 new and used recreational vehicles listed in its inventory, the South Florida Business Journal reported. The company submitted its chapter 11 petition on Oct. 15 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in West Palm Beach. William Waits signed the petition as president of the company. According to the company’s website, Waits opened the dealership in West Palm Beach in 2010 after previously owning RV dealerships in Vero Beach and Savannah, Georgia, both of which he sold. Waits RV Center listed $1.85 million in assets, mostly its inventory of vehicles, and $2.38 million in debts. Its largest creditors were Wells Fargo with a $600,000 loan, Alpharetta, Georgia-based Northpoint Commercial Finance with $500,000 owed, Fort Lauderdale-based AFC Funding with $400,000 owed, and Tampa-based BayFirst National Bank with a $350,000 SBA loan.