EEVblog 1408 - $5M WiGL Wireless Charging BUSTED!

[EEVblog]

WiGL have raised almost 5 MILLION dollars on StartEngine.
What's worse than another wireless charging technology startup? - One that doesn't really have any original technology!
This one is just embarrassing.
And they want to comepete with Energous, WiTricity, Ossia and others, LOL.

Sorry for the length, here are some handy time markers:
00:00 - WiGL Raised $5M on StartEngine
02:50 - A look at the StartEngine campaign
07:15 - It's like WiFi for Power! Where have we heard this before?
12:02 - Let's comete with Enerous, HUAWEI, WiTricity, and Ossia. LOL
13:52 - Brand Dominance!
16:00 - Let's watch the promo video!
17:38 - The AMAZING WiGL Energy Unit technology!
23:07 - A whopping 2.5mW!
25:56 - All hail the White Paper!
29:40 - The Patent
34:12 - Let's charge an iPhone!
36:58 - Their latest technology demonstrator!
38:15 - WiGL Tech Talk with the founder showing off their latest tech!
45:26 - INFINITE POWER!
46:23 - We've already done it! No, no you haven't.
47:49 - Uh-Oh! We have a SKEPTIC!

WiGL Video: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp8St2LrfCuHuPd1UoXfjng
StartEngine: https://www.startengine.com/wigl
White Paper: https://wiglpower.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/WigL-White-Paper-Download.pdf
Home page: https://www.wiglpower.com/
Patent: https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2018212805A1/en?oq=9985465

[Neilm]

This technology could be used to charge a smart phone or electric car.

All it needs to do is transfer enough power to switch a logic signal driving a relay connected to the mains

[daqq]

The applications are limitless! This could suck the money from dumb people! It could suck money from dumber people! It could suck money from rich and poor dumb people alike! Wow!

[jonovid]

just use imagination

[EEVblog]

For a near identical product, and one that contains some actual original tech to try and do 5W wireless charging, see my debunk of the Xiaomi wireless charger. This is EXACTLY what the WiGL will have to be if it wants to receive 5W directed RF power. The numbers and issues will be exactly the same, so just replace the word Xiaomi with WiGL and you have another Part 2 debunk of WiGL:

[777arc]

I bet Virginia Tech could (and should) sue the crap out of them, they claim their tech talk was at "Virginia Tech University" on their website and StartEngine, but the tech talk was really at a place called "Tech Center" which is a BS tech incubator not associated with Virginia Tech.   There is no such college/uni called "Virginia Tech University" but there is Virginia Tech, where I went, and it wouldn't be crazy to claim that saying  "Virginia Tech University" implies Virginia Tech university.  When I first saw the video I was really disappointed in my school, before realizing it wasn't actually at Virginia Tech.  Would it be slander or trademark infringement or something?

[MrMobodies]

I guess this is how they WiGGLE out of it with the information they don't bombared you with in the small print after the 18 months is up and all the wages have been paid.

Notice: "Important Message" in small font size like the rest below but not as "important" to be as large like the marketing materials above:

Important Message
IN MAKING AN INVESTMENT DECISION, INVESTORS MUST RELY ON THEIR OWN EXAMINATION OF THE ISSUER AND THE TERMS OF THE OFFERING, INCLUDING THE MERITS AND RISKS INVOLVED. INVESTMENTS ON STARTENGINE ARE SPECULATIVE, ILLIQUID, AND INVOLVE A HIGH DEGREE OF RISK, INCLUDING THE POSSIBLE LOSS OF YOUR ENTIRE INVESTMENT.

www.StartEngine.com is a website owned and operated by StartEngine Crowdfunding, Inc. (“StartEngine”), which is neither a registered broker-dealer, investment advisor nor funding portal.
Unless indicated otherwise with respect to a particular issuer, all securities-related activity is conducted by regulated affiliates of StartEngine: StartEngine Capital, LLC, a funding portal registered here with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and here as a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), or StartEngine Primary, LLC, a broker-dealer registered with the SEC and FINRA/SIPC. You can review the background of our broker-dealer and our investment professionals on FINRA’s BrokerCheck here. StartEngine Secondary is an alternative trading system regulated by the SEC and operated by StartEngine Primary, LLC, a broker dealer registered with the SEC and FINRA.

Investment opportunities posted and accessible through the site are of three types:
1) Regulation A offerings (JOBS Act Title IV; known as Regulation A+), which are offered to non-accredited and accredited investors alike. These offerings are made through StartEngine Primary, LLC (unless otherwise indicated). 2) Regulation D offerings (Rule 506(c)), which are offered only to accredited investors. These offerings are made through StartEngine Primary, LLC. 3) Regulation Crowdfunding offerings (JOBS Act Title III), which are offered to non-accredited and accredited investors alike. These offerings are made through StartEngine Capital, LLC. Some of these offerings are open to the general public, however there are important differences and risks.
Any securities offered on this website have not been recommended or approved by any federal or state securities commission or regulatory authority. StartEngine and its affiliates do not provide any investment advice or recommendation and do not provide any legal or tax advice with respect to any securities. All securities listed on this site are being offered by, and all information included on this site is the responsibility of, the applicable issuer of such securities. StartEngine does not verify the adequacy, accuracy or completeness of any information. Neither StartEngine nor any of its officers, directors, agents and employees makes any warranty, express or implied, of any kind whatsoever related to the adequacy, accuracy, or completeness of any information on this site or the use of information on this site. See additional general disclosures here.
By accessing this site and any pages on this site, you agree to be bound by our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, as may be amended from time to time without notice or liability.
Canadian Investors
Investment opportunities posted and accessible through the site will not be offered to Canadian resident investors.
Potential investors are strongly advised to consult their legal, tax and financial advisors before investing. The securities offered on this site are not offered in jurisdictions where public solicitation for offerings is not permitted; it is solely your responsibility to comply with the laws and regulations of your country of residence.
California Investor Only - Do Not Sell My Personal Information

INVESTMENTS ON STARTENGINE ARE SPECULATIVE
So someone could just start a campaign offering a one way trip to heaven and that's fine on Startengine as it's all speculative investments and fraud don't seem to apply to them.

Sounds worse than IndieGoGo and I'd thought Dave said that was "the scammers platform of choice" in one of his videos.

So the 80% investment that goes into wages to pay that one person just to give back in investments of 20% or whatevers left after "research and developments" to the investors in their slotted amount and it looks like the have got it planned out for them.

[daqq]

Hey Dave, he's a fan!

[EEVblog]

Hey Dave, he's a fan!

LOL, not falling for it.
He wants the interview so he can use it as marketing leverage, just like he used the other guy.

Multiple transmitters will solve everything
They already pumped out 3W into a large antenna array and got the entirely predictable 10's of mW output.
He will need 500W+ input power to get anything practically usable to charge a phone, exactly as I calculated here, the numbers and issues are identical.

[EEVblog]

Turns out you can comment on campaigns without backing it, you just need an email account.
https://www.startengine.com/wigl

[EEVblog]

 

[EEVblog]

The comments section is a hoot! 
They have invented to use of a capacitor for trickle charge storage!

But I've now lost two comments, it seems buggy, so I won't be posting any more.

[EEVblog]

Post'em all

[EEVblog]

More

[EEVblog]

Something tells me they wouldn't be so happy with my video and skepticism and a "big fan" if they hadn't already raised $4.8M, with only 200k to go.
Can you pull your funding from StartEngine before the campaign ends?

[nctnico]

Turns out you can comment on campaigns without backing it, you just need an email account.
https://www.startengine.com/wigl

Do give up on inverse square law when dealing with wireless power transfer. It doesn't apply; you'll see it yourself if you actually study magnetic beam forming for example. There are several papers available online which show the math and test results over various distances (>1m) with way over 1W of power transfer at better than 80% efficiency.

For example: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1509.06602.pdf

[DrG]

Can you pull your funding from StartEngine before the campaign ends?

From: https://sec.report/Document/0001665160-20-001595/offeringmemoformc.pdf

• Investment Cancellations: Investors will have up to 48 hours prior to the end of the offering
period to change their minds and cancel their investment commitments for any reason. Once within 48
hours of ending, investors will not be able to cancel for any reason, even if they make a
commitment during this period.

[ssander]

WiGL may have posted it on one place but over on another, it is not getting as much interest, well zero interest on another.

https://crowdlustro.com/search/3002-WiGL-on-StartEngine 

Are these people even real? Sounds like a Uni assignment where you have to set up a fictitious product and do a marketing campaign.

[madires]

It's hilarious! Possibly their way to WiGL money out of the pockets of many victims might be even legal.

[MrMobodies]

Can you pull your funding from StartEngine before the campaign ends?

From: https://sec.report/Document/0001665160-20-001595/offeringmemoformc.pdf

• Investment Cancellations: Investors will have up to 48 hours prior to the end of the offering
period to change their minds and cancel their investment commitments for any reason. Once within 48
hours of ending, investors will not be able to cancel for any reason, even if they make a
commitment during this period.

In that PDF document it looks to me that they left out that the top bit in the small print at the bottom of the website:

A crowdfunding investment involves risk. You should not invest any funds in this offering unless you can afford to lose your entire investment.
...
In making an investment decision, investors must rely on their own examination of the issuer and the terms of the offering....

https://www.startengine.com/wigl

Important Message
IN MAKING AN INVESTMENT DECISION, INVESTORS MUST RELY ON THEIR OWN EXAMINATION OF THE ISSUER AND THE TERMS OF THE OFFERING

I wonder why they didn't that include it on the top with the rest.

In other words: They should not invest any money unless they can effectively afford to give it all away.

[thm_w]

So they admit all they have is the name Wigl, which is nothing because any major company can come up with their own branded name (eg iCharge, whatever).

Also, probably not illegal, but, the main Ahmad guy straight up stating he will use DOD funding to pay for the R&D of his private company? wow. How is that not in the contract, unless its a blanket grant with no restrictions at all.

I bet Virginia Tech could (and should) sue the crap out of them, they claim their tech talk was at "Virginia Tech University" on their website and StartEngine, but the tech talk was really at a place called "Tech Center" which is a BS tech incubator not associated with Virginia Tech.   There is no such college/uni called "Virginia Tech University" but there is Virginia Tech, where I went, and it wouldn't be crazy to claim that saying  "Virginia Tech University" implies Virginia Tech university.  When I first saw the video I was really disappointed in my school, before realizing it wasn't actually at Virginia Tech.  Would it be slander or trademark infringement or something?

Virginia tech puts out some amazing sports research, so didn't believe when they said VT had anything to do with this.
You could pass the youtube link on to schools lawyers, but I don't know if its enough for them to care. They didn't say "sponsored by VT", or "approved by VT" or anything implying an actual relationship.

[DrG]

When a company, e.g., Wireless electrical Grid LAN, WiGL, Inc. is regulated by the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission and incorporated in a state in the US, a standard investigator tool is to go look at their SEC filings.

In the instant case, these can be found here: https://sec.report/CIK/0001836728

My recollection is that old timer "Individual Investors" were always cautioned about "pink sheet" stocks .... the generic "penny stock".  Back then, it was harder to get the information that you can now get with a few clicks. I never bought a penny stock in my life. There were a few cases, many years ago, where I would research extensively some new offering, penny stock or whatever. This, because I knew a great deal about the subject matter. I am comfortable with my decisions in those cases.

I am not going to opine on whether this stock is a good or bad investment, period. In fact, I do not know a great deal about the subject matter. It is your money and it is your risk.  My point here is that I would hope that folks who spend cash on stocks do some research and make informed and evidenced-based decisions. I am distinctly disinclined to support the YOLO mentality.

I enjoyed the video.

[robca]

From one of Dr. Ahmad G. replies to a comment

WiGL is all about owning “what we call wireless power”. How we package and sell wireless power. And that race has started my friend.

The debate on Inverse Square Law, system power demands and power versus distance are best suited for our competitors 🙏🏽 who make Tx and Rx. Sadly folks have seen the words wireless power and “assumed” we are offering a new version of those old mouse traps. That’s not WiGL🙈. WiGL is “wireless electrical grid “local area networks”. Using existing steerable beam tech and capacitors in the loop

What he seems to be saying is that they have no IP in the power Tx/Rx space. Their "innovation" is a branding name and some unspecified DRM overlay onto existing Tx and Rx hardware. In his SEC documents and the answers on the Startengine page, all that matters seems to be "being first in creating a brand for wireless power so that consumers will ask for it". And somewhere else in one of his replies, he says that consumers will pay a Wigl subscription to receive power

Their only assets are a trademark, a cute logo and a patent that says that they can manage wireless power delivery. One of their PR Newswires (https://www.prweb.com/releases/2018/06/prweb15545051.htm) says "The full text for patent number 9,985,465 is for systems, devices, and/or methods for managing electrical energy.".  And once more here (https://patents.justia.com/patent/20200067341) the patent is called "Systems, Devices, and/or Methods for Managing Wireless Electrical Grid Location or Personal Area Network (WiGL) Energy"

So, I assume, some sort of a Rx that upon sensing a "Wigl-enabled Tx" will negotiate securely to receive beamformed power to the device from one or more Wigl-enabled Tx in a local area. They seem to have no interest in developing the Tx and Rx tech, as much as in finding partners to design and manufacture Tx and Rx pars using the Wigl branding. Their SEC document doesn't talk about unique IP in the transmission or reception of wireless power. https://sec.report/Document/0001665160-21-000533/. That's why they have no problems using existing third party devices in their demos. They have no idea on how to build better Tx or Rx (apart from adding capacitors  ). That's why he can write off Dave's and other people concerns, since he's not worried about what every EE is immediately aware of: physics is a problem.

Here is what he says:

5. And yes again, anyone can steal the Tx signal in space if they are in the field of regard, so we are building software controls and have partnered with Espre (and others) for cyber hardening of our MVPs. This is where the subscriptions come into play. No subscription + crypto key = no WiGL. Again, a lot like the cellular model where no subscription equals no coverage.
6. WiGL’s novelty is connecting these dots and advancing the small amount of tech needed to “integrate”…Existing Tx+Rx+SW
7. WiGL is all about connecting the dots.
8. Most important, we are after naming rights…meaning when wireless power is at your hotel or offered in your car in 2030…what do you call it? And who has monetized the name. We are betting on “WiGL”.

Note the focus on naming and integrating existing Tx+Rx... And, yes, that's as delusional as it sounds 

Note to self: check out Startengine, it seems to be the ideal vehicle to scam poor sods out of their money. So much more efficient than even the previous champion, IndieGoGo. 

[EEVblog]

Turns out you can comment on campaigns without backing it, you just need an email account.
https://www.startengine.com/wigl

Do give up on inverse square law when dealing with wireless power transfer. It doesn't apply; you'll see it yourself if you actually study magnetic beam forming for example. There are several papers available online which show the math and test results over various distances (>1m) with way over 1W of power transfer at better than 80% efficiency.

For example: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1509.06602.pdf

That paper is about directed magnetic resonat coupling and near-field. This is not how WiGL works works it seems, it's claims are far-field, and there is absoutely no mention of resonance in any of their documentation or patent. It's siple beamformed RF with direct wideband RF-DC conversion.

I spoke to Shahriar from the signal path about the Xaiomi charger and it's an identical problem, and he says you are going to lose 50% right off the bat for RF-DC conversion at high frequencies.
And you need significantly more than 1m to be practical.
And then you will always have the capture area of the antenna and practical orientation of the phone. It's an impractical boondoggle.
I have no doubt you can get something halfway decent as a bench example.

[EEVblog]

Virginia tech puts out some amazing sports research, so didn't believe when they said VT had anything to do with this.
You could pass the youtube link on to schools lawyers, but I don't know if its enough for them to care. They didn't say "sponsored by VT", or "approved by VT" or anything implying an actual relationship.

And that's how these people work. They get people like universities, or the inventor of the RFdigagnostics chip, or UL (in the case of Batteriser for example) to verify some small aspect of their work, very likely without telling them the full scope of their grandiose impractical claims. And then they use that snippet to imply endorsement. And the neat thing is they aren't technically lying.
That's the reason why they want me to interview them, so they can use it as marketing fodder.

Just look at the VT video, it's 5 seconds of some professor pushing the cart. No opinion, no commentary, no other info.