Meyer Optik Görlitz Disappears from Kickstarter along with Backers’ Contributions

If you backed the Meyer Optik Görlitz lens on Kickstarter we’re sorry to tell you that the company is no more and you won’t be getting your reward.

net SE, the company that makes the Meyer Optik Görlitz lens along with other rebooted vintage brand lenses, will be closing. The news is coming from a report by photoscala. It was first to point out an official notice that was published, directing claims to a law firm.

It was reported back in August that net SE filed for bankruptcy despite running a successful Kickstarter campaign — raising millions of dollars. The company started another Kickstarter to fund existing lens projects that they’d already promised to its backers. Also in early August, net SE’s founder and CEO Stefan Immes was in a serious traffic accident and was said to no longer be involved with the company.

Will Meyer Optik Görlitz backers get anything for their investments?

Photoscala goes on to say that insolvency proceedings have been opened on the remaining assets of net SE. So, basically, there’s no chance that their Kickstarter backers will receive anything, despite their investments.

This sadly isn’t an uncommon occurrence on Kickstarter

It’s not an uncommon occurrence for a Kickstarter project to meet its funding goal and still end up not fulfilling its promises. It’s unfortunate that Meyer Optik Görlitz backers will not be getting what they paid for. And the Meyer Optik Görlitz lenses were not the only lenses net SE made. The company also attempted to reboot vintage brands like Emil Busch A.-G. Rathenau, Oprema Jena, C.P. Goerz, Ihagee Elbaflex and A. Schacht.

This doesn’t mean there aren’t good things coming out of Kickstarter, but sadly there are times like this when everybody loses. Take this as an advisory warning when backing any kind of crowdfunding project. We’re not saying you shouldn’t back one; we just want to you be aware that you could potentially lose some money if the project falls through.

Sean Berry
Sean Berry
Sean Berry is Videomaker's Managing Editor.

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