Category Archives: HumanCharger

Valkee is history

earlightswindle exclusive, Finland, HumanCharger, pseudoscience, Valkee, , ,

Dear readers,

after more than 13 14 years of useless existence, nearly 100.000 betrayed customers, over 20 million € damage (including ~15 million tax money and private investments):

Valkee Oy (aka Valkee Ltd) is history.

This comes also nearly 10 years after I set out to stop this fraud, firstly with the MOT TV program, which I instigated, co-wrote* and appeared in, which was followed by the 2012 HuuHaa award from Skepsis ry that cited my analysis, and the countless publications on this blog and elsewhere.

Besides the MOT Yleisradio program, there have been many incredible moments, the most recent being the thesis defense farce in Oulu, about which I wrote in Skeptikko 4/2018 (p.24).

There may be some text in Finnish coming this week.

_____

*why I was uncredited despite 70% of the original story was mine, is part of the untold

Valkee Sets New Record, and:
A Match Made in Hell… err, Oulu

earlightswindle exclusive, Finland, huijaus Suomesta, HumanCharger, investors, pseudoscience, Valkee, , , , , , , ,

Valkee Oy tekee omavaraisuusasteen miinusennätyksen, ja korvavalon keksijä tekee nyt töitä krapulapilleri-firmalle, joka oli myös kritiikkini kohde täällä.

Valkee Ltd, manufacturer of the HumanCharger earlight devices, has set a new record. Unnoticed by the public, the company reached Finland’s most negative equity ratio and most consecutive years without declaring an overdue bankruptcy.

As told before, there is no rationale behind keeping this enterprise alive, other than the chairman’s reluctance to admit defeat. Timo Ahopelto seems to repress the fact, that  Finland’s penal law lists not declaring a bankruptcy and accumulating additional debt as a crime (chapter 39 no. 1a: Aggravated dishonesty by a debtor, törkeä velallisen epärehellisyys). Welcome to up to 4 years in prison.

Meanwhile, key personnel of the failed firm is “looking for challenges” elsewhere. The following observation nearly knocked me off the chair…

Keep in mind, how this blog was initially only about the Valkee-HumanCharger earlight swindle, until I started writing also about hangover cures. Naturally, many “inventors” and sellers of such BS are found in Finland. My years-long series started with Rohtos Oy from Oulu, and its acetylcysteine scam.

The earlight inventor, Juuso Nissilä, works now for Rohtos.

Did they meet in a hate group? Or a self-help organization for scammer who fell “victim” to my activities? I’m afraid we will never know.

 

HumanCharger Balance: Why does Valkee Ltd still exist?

crowdfunding, earlightswindle exclusive, HumanCharger, investors, pseudoscience, Valkee, valkeeleaks, , , , , ,

Last month the Finnish Patent and Register Office (prh.fi) threatened to shut down Valkee Ltd, the manufacturer of the infamous HumanCharger device, should the company not provide their 2/2020 balance.

The long-overdue document was hastily produced in early February 2021, with strong-worded remarks by the accountant and auditor, who were called in too late. Here it is.

Valkee balance 2020

As expected, sales were down again (turnover €568.000)and loss was growing (to 776.000). The company is still existing despite awful bank debts, which it will never be able to repay (long-term 730.000 and short-term 840.000).

The most concerning point, however, is that the balance sum has shrunk to only €193.000, while Valkee has a registered floating charge of 300.000. Taking into account also the loss of all share capital already back in 2017, and the bitter failure of their Indiegogo campaign which should have rescued the business, it’s simply reckless to keep this thing going.

I’d speculated before, that it’s Valkee’s chairman Timo Ahopelto, who doesn’t want to admit defeat and keeps the company up with little sums. He has toured podcasts and conferences preaching the long-busted “benefits” of the HumanCharger, and had to let go other important investments very recently (Enevo Oy went into bankruptcy in July 2020).

In other jurisdictions, for instance in Germany, a company that has never and will never generate a profit must be shut down already for taxation laws. “Hobby” business is not allowed under a public registration. In Finland, even a firm that has no share capital and is permanently soaking in funds, may exist for an indefinite time. The problem with Valkee is, that it keeps scamming people as long as it is active – as seen on IGG.

 

Valkee’s leaders still claim, that everything will gonna be ok. The CEO Aki Backman has been compared to Iraq’s previous information minister “Comical Ali” for that.

The company’s last full fiscal year ends on Sunday, 28th Feb 2021.

 

There will be no FI-version of this post, because I expect the snail media to do it soon.

 

 

HumanCharger-Valkee leaving the stage

Finland, huijaus Suomesta, HumanCharger, investors, pseudoscience, Valkee, , , , , , , , ,

Finnish media reported last week, that Valkee Ltd. is now registered on the public list of insolvent debitors (protestilista). The maker of the HumanCharger scam devices, which has received stupid money investments of more than 10 million Euro and is chaired by the “famous” Timo Ahopelto, is now unable to pay bills as low as €1000.

The press reports show, that despite being otherwise a small and rather unimportant company, Valkee is still of interest because of the vast media attention it received in the past. This development was furthered, predicted and documented by this blog for years.

The snail media, having re-published my stories repeatedly without revealing the source, missed a certain detail. Valkee Ltd has also been forced out of their long-term headquarters in Oulu. Their website still speaks about “R&D and production facilities [which] are located adjacent to the company’s headquarters in Oulu, Finland”. In fact, Valkee could no longer pay the rent in Elektroniikkatie 3-5. The new address is in Lummintie 11 in Oulunsalo.

There is not much space for production and R&D, adjacent to a massage therapist.

The company is so desperate, it sells the devices now for $87 (previously $219). In Europe these are out of stock, no cash to manufacture any more. This is how the story ends.

HumanCharger: Indiegogo campaign fails, last investor pulls out (update)

crowdfunding, earlightswindle exclusive, HumanCharger, investors, pseudoscience, Valkee, , , , ,

Valkee (alias HumanCharger) has had a single foreign investor since 2013: Merieux Developpement, which financed the earlight company together with Lifeline Ventures and the finnish tax payer. As the co-lead investor, Merieux Dev. had its partner Valerie Calenda on Valkee’s board. Until now.

 

According to the trade register, Calenda has resigned from the board recently. Merieux Equity Partners, which holds the active investments of Merieux Dev., no longer lists Valkee on its portfolio pages. From the french investor’s “regional partners” category disappeared Seppo Mäkinen, former Sitra director, and probably the person who lured Merieux Dev. into this adventure.

 

There is no explanation other than Merieux has backed off and written down its multi-million loss. Now Valkee’s HumanCharger operations are completely controlled by its own folks: the CEO Aki Backman, the inventor Juuso Nissilä, and Timo Ahopelto.

The struggling company had high expectations for their follow-up product to the old LED headset: The HumanCharger Wireless Headset, an ugly and hard-to-wear bluetooth device. It launched an Indiegogo campaign, which looks like a complete desaster already.

 

Featured prominently at reddit/shittykickstarters, people aren’t buying it for half the price.

One backer has left a positive comment, looks like here’s really an impressed user.

 

It’s Timo Ahopelto, the company’s chairman, who felt the urgent need to push his product. Probably it won’t help.

***

UPDATE 7.12.2019:
Valkee’s “HumanCharger” managed to reach 55% of the 30.000€ funding goal on Indiegogo after a month. They added another month and got 40% more, still unable to reach their low aim. They crossed the 100% with the help of two “backers” who sponsored the company with >2000€, not claiming a perk. Probably, these were staffers.

To “reach” the goal made it possible to sell the scam devices still over IGG under the “onDemand” label. The demand is 2-3 devices per week.

These facts are recorded on IGG trackers, like backerkit.com.

HumanCharger-Valkee’s balance 2019: Guess what?

earlightswindle exclusive, Finland, huijaus Suomesta, HumanCharger, Valkee, valkeeleaks, , , , , ,

Finnish Valkee Ltd, maker of the questionable HumanCharger earlight device, has just filed its 2018-2019 balance. It’s the same as every year: Overwhelming loss and now again a sharp drop in revenue.

And as every year, earlightswindle.com makes it available.

Valkee balance 2/2019 (valkee2019.pdf)

Turnover has fallen by 34%, thus eliminating last years somewhat surprising rise. It’s now 637.000€, i.e. even less than in 2016/17. The effect of the US launch seems to level out. Good news for them: Loss is down to 594.000 Euro. But this means, that still every Euro turnover results in one Euro loss – as last year.

HR costs are down from 411.000 to 268.000€, and with (only) 226.000€ paid out, the question is who’s still employed by this company – besides its CEO and some salespersons.

Valkee is struggling to survive, as it did since 2007 – and now it became clear, how the project is “scaling”. It will exist as long as its investors are willing to pay. The plug may be pulled sooner or later.

That’s an enduring embarassment also for Interbrand, which really messed up by calling HumanCharger a “breakthrough brand” in 2017. The only thing that will break here will be the investors’ patience.

Over & out, as I leave this rather boring news piece to the snail media, Kauppalehti, HelsinginSanomat or whatever, for those laties who have not cancelled subscriptions yet.

Update 13.7.2019: Kauppalehti did as expected and translated this into finnish as “news”. Always welcome on my blog.