Donut Lab

Verge Motorcycles Verge Motorcycles was founded in Seinäjoki, Finland, in 2018. The company's founding investors include founder Tuomo Lehtimäki, Marko Lehtimäki, Ville Piippo, Henri Vähäkainu, Vaasa Martti Ehrnrooth, and Ismo Aukee. The company has delivered under 100 electric motorcycles since its founding until February 2026. Reviews of the original Verge TS Pro motorcycle highlight the motor's torque and unique look and the motorcycle's long city-driving range, but criticize the sluggish handling and price. In response to customer feedback, the 2026 model was designed with updated suspension and shock absorbers, an adjusted steering angle, and a motor that is half the weight of its predecessor while keeping the same power and torque. Verge Motorcycles reported a net income of €1M and a net loss of €10M in 2024, and a net income of €0.1M and a net loss of €9M in 2023. PwC, the auditor hired to audit the company's financial reports in Estonia for 2024, reported they could not complete their audit because the company lacks almost all financial information on inventory management, sales receipts, research expenditure, and property values. The Estonian subsidiary has no cash and depends on loans from its Finnish parent company, its management, and their relatives. The company's continued operations depend on business negotiations that are not yet binding. Donut Lab Donut Lab was founded in August 2024 as a spin-off company by Verge Motorcycles. The company was founded by Marko Lehtimäki, who previously served as Chief Technology Officer of Verge Motorcycles. Prior to becoming separate entities in August 2024, Verge Motorcycles and Donut Lab raised 15 million euro in 2024. Donut Lab raised 25 million euro in a seed funding round in July 2025. == Products ==

Wheel hub motor Donut Lab promotes the Donut Motor, a wheel hub motor developed by Verge Motorcycles. The motor takes its name from its toroid donut-like shape. The motor integrates directly into the vehicle's tire assembly, eliminating the need for a traditional transmission, Solid-state battery Donut Lab introduced its solid-state battery, Donut Battery, at the 2026 CES. The CEO stated the battery contains no lithium, is capable of energy density, undergoing 100,000 charge cycles at 5C, fully charging in five minutes, operating in temperatures from −30 to 100 °C or −30 to 200 °F, and it is priced lower than current automotive lithium-ion batteries. The CEO announced the battery is being used in motorcycles that will ship to customers in the first quarter of 2026, that the battery is available to OEMs for production immediately, technology journalists, and discussion participants on technology websites. Ulderico Ulissi, head of off-China operations of battery manufacturer CATL, said the announced claims about the Donut Battery are clearly fake. Professors and researchers from several universities cast doubt about the announced specifications and cautioned to wait for evidence. Finnish investor and columnist placed Donut Lab in the group "direct bullshit" in his Sijoitustieto.fi column in January 2026 and called Lehtimäki a snake oil trader. He wrote that three individual investors told him that Donut Lab shares were offered to them, and wondered why Donut Lab would approach small independent investors instead of large institutional investors. The newspaper Helsingin Sanomat published claims that Donut Lab contacted individual Finnish investors and promised return on investment in the hundreds of percent within a few months. Evidence At the battery's unveiling in January 2026, no independent testing was given in support of the claims presented. The company presented mockups in place of actual batteries. When questioned by journalists in January 2026, the company did not disclose the location of its battery production facility. The CEO of Donut Lab said they are already capable of gigawatt-hour yearly production in January 2026. The CEO of Donut Lab said in a video released on 20 February 2026 that VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland had been hired to conduct independent testing of the battery. and the voltage curve strongly indicates the device chemistry is Li-NMC. The capacity degradation at 11C indicates the battery reaches 70% of its original capacity after 30-50 such cycles. There is consensus among solid-state battery experts that the results from the first two sets of tests performed by VTT for Donut Lab are meaningless in terms of commercial use, as they do not test capacity fade and pack-level performance. == References ==