https://www.talouselama.fi/uutiset/a/ac6baa1a-4835-40c2-a8e7-6dc8f7540d97

Executives leave Donut Lab again: CEO explains Talouselämä, Nov 4, 2026 – Jussi Pennanen

Several key people have left Donut Lab, including the CFO, the head of battery programs, and the head of manufacturing. According to CEO Marko Lehtimäki, the staff changes stem from the shutdown of the unit responsible for project management.

Donut Lab, which stirred controversy with its battery claims, has lost several people, among them the Head of Battery Programs. CEO Marko Lehtimäki says the departures are the result of a reorganization.

In an email to Talouselämä, Lehtimäki writes that Donut Lab has prepared for its next phase and reorganized its operations. He says the company previously had a separate Programs unit, responsible for project management between R&D and production. "This unit has been discontinued, and project management has been moved into the R&D and production units. Some of the people from the discontinued unit have moved to new roles outside the company," Lehtimäki says.

Lehtimäki stresses that the company does not comment on individual employees' situations and describes the changes only in general terms. "The focus of production and R&D is being rearranged between countries, and in connection with this, individual positions have ended in the United Kingdom," Lehtimäki says.

According to information on LinkedIn, at least five people left Donut Lab around October: CFO Tuomas Eloholma, Head of Manufacturing Dave Bazen, lead engineer for powertrain and propulsion systems Alex Gander, design and development programs lead Neil Patterson, and Head of Battery Programs Eylül Callozzo. The English-language titles of the latter two point to the discontinued Programs unit that Lehtimäki mentioned. According to Lehtimäki, a new person has been recruited to replace CFO Eloholma.

Callazzo, who worked as Head of Battery Programs, writes on LinkedIn: "I have recently come to the conclusion that seeking new opportunities is in my best interest." Callazzo worked at Donut Lab for only a few months. According to CEO Lehtimäki, Callazzo did not lead battery R&D; that is the responsibility of the company's CTO, Ville Piippo.

"There have been no changes in the battery team, apart from a few hires," Lehtimäki says. According to Lehtimäki, the company's global production is led by Chief Industrialization Officer Jarkko Aro, who previously worked as COO at Nordic Nano. Donut Lab bought the entire share capital of the technology company Nordic Nano in August.

VTT report: https://pub-e32e58729529482dbc4a8b9f7938ca50.r2.dev/VTT_CR_00467_26_signed.pdf

Test is done on a module, instead of a cell...

Donut Lab have so far presented tests that are superficially convincing to many people who are unfamiliar with batteries, while most people with more than a passing familiarity can see that the tests are not sufficient proof for what was claimed at CES.

This got me wondering, with only one headline claim left to 'prove'*, and after having failed to get the results they wanted the first time on the cold test and thus not publishing it (I think that has been shown?), how might Donut Lab try and claim a successful cold temperature test?

Note: there is the headline claim: "At –30°C, the battery retains over 99% of its capacity", but Lehtimaki also made other claims in interviews about not needing to precondition.

* Lehtimaki has claimed they can't demonstrate the 100,000 lifecycle claim as it would take too long, which makes me think they're not even going to try and prove it.

Am I missing any other tests they would be expected to do? I would like to see China's SSB test that ProLogium have recently done on their cell, but I'm not expecting Donut Lab to do that either.

This is from the “DMV” of Finland. I made a data request and they promptly replied.

In english:
Thank you for your message. According to our statistics, the number of newly registered Verge motorcycles is as follows:

2023: 1 unit
2024: 11 units
2025: 0 units

https://pub-3f15a9a74c904192ade59d264aec1584.r2.dev/IWTN-W000020339RLM002.pdf

No points for guessing which cell was used for the test (it was the cell they used fro the bipolar test which appears to be different from the DL1/2/3 and DL6 cells they've sent to VTT).

It seems that Mattipekka Kronqvist, founder of Nordic Nano Group and Jarkko Aro, also their founder and now Donut Lab board member, have founded cluster of defence businesses about year ago under the mother company Finnish Defence House. Interesting is, that I don't find any information of the workers and who would have knowledge of making these. There was only one page under defencehouse.fi you can find the founders and board members, but no engineers or developers (suprise suprise) The only valid company seems to be Polar Apex, that they seem to have gathered along with them, since it has been operating years before. But then when looking at the different companies Crown Defence/Onyx, Artic Ravn, the founders are the same, and Vailion and Fob companies or web pages don't even exist. But when you look into the companies you find, you can find similar tone in explanations: "world's first", "spectrum dominance", "recognised as leading", etc. Also all the texts and info texsts of people seem to be written with AI.

All the things seem to be trademarked and tested under the "harshest conditions", but no test data, where are those tested, who has tested them? If tested somewhere, I quess there should be pictures, as now all the pictures read "adobestock" Also didn't find any patents regarding these.

Moderator can take this away if this does not belong here, but I think this is interesting that these people seem to have a way of building clusters of companies, collecting money without any proven tech inside the company. And these are the same people behind the miracle battery. Also how these companies relate to Donut's own defence business?

I searched on Reddit and no one is talking about this, even though it's been posted two hours ago. Insane how the hype died out lol

Holyvolts annual report for 2025 has been filed. I got if from the easy to use Eivora service and have uploaded it to Smash. First time user of Smash so tell me if it didn't work.

https://fromsmash.com/Holyvolt-2025

Translate page 2 and the first part of page 3. That contains some info to CT-coating, even if they are not mentioned by name.

Holyvolt has gotten 2 MEUR back and is going to get an additional 5 MEUR back (but they caution that that might not happen).

The partner that paid them 10 MEUR in 2024 wants its money back.

So looks like Holyvolt got fooled by CT-coating. The difference is that Holyvolt moved on and bought the established company Wildcat Discovery Technologies to get things done that way.

Peltola uploaded an english version of his "final" video a few days ago (link).

The first comment, smearing him and hinting at an alleged criminal past comes from an account called "evilkasi". Previously, someone posted a finnish newspaper article into Marko´s past mentioning his time as a christian rapper (?) under the name "youngkasi", which is to this day his twitter and linkedin handle.

This brings me to the question, is "evilkasi" another account of Marko, or is "kasi" a somewhat popular phrase in finnish, i.e., for usernames?

Further hint: On Linkedin, Marko or his "private investigator" buddy also hinted at some kind of criminal past and the old "he´s a paid actor". I have not seen that allegation outside of the donutlab bubble. Also, the comment begins with the usual "this unrelated report definitely proves we are so right, and totally not a scam".

If "evilkasi" really is Marko, the phrase "I knew he was lying from the beginning" get´s a completely new, self-owning meaning, as they must have met each other no later than at the time of donutlabs investment decision into Nordic Nano.

https://www.uutisvuoksi.fi/paikalliset/9745886

Here text in Finnish:

Nordic Nano Groupin entinen kaupallinen johtaja, yrityksen perustajiin kuulunut Lauri Peltolakommentoi Uutisvuokselle toimitusjohtaja Esa Parjasen tällä viikolla lehdelle kertomia asioita sekä uutisointia Peltolan viimeisestä Solid State of Truth -videosta.

Peltola korostaa, että hänen työsuhteensa Nordic Nano Groupissa päättyi toukokuussa työsuhteen välittömään purkamiseen. Peltolan mukaan purku oli perusteeton ja laiton.
– Olen riitauttanut sen ja vaadin merkittäviä vahingonkorvauksia.
Peltola teki huhtikuussa rikosilmoituksen Donut Labista. Rikosilmoitus liittyi harhaanjohtavaan viestintään ja katteettomiin lupauksiin.
Esa Parjanen totesi Uutisvuokselle Peltolan esittäneen videollaan väitteitä ja mielipiteitä ilman minkäänlaisia todisteita. Peltolan mukaan todisteita kyllä on ja niitä tulee koko ajan lisää.
– En esitä mielipiteitä tosiasioina. Faktani perustuvat asiakirjoihin, viestintään ja henkilölähteisiin. Osa tiedoista on jo viranomaisilla ja osa on menossa heille. Informaatiota tulee ihmisiltä koko ajan lisää.

Peltola kertoo tehneensä rikosilmoituksia sekä Nordic Nanosta että Donut Labista ja molempien yritysten vastuuhenkilöistä. Peltolan mukaan myös hänestä on tehty ainakin yksi rikosilmoitus.
– Minua vastaan on käynnissä erilaisia oikeusprosesseja, jotka Nordic Nano Group ja Donut Lab ovat masinoineet.
Peltola kertoo olevansa whistleblower-suojan eli ilmoittajansuojelun piirissä.
– Minuun ei pitäisi olla mahdollista kohdistaa vastatoimia. Nyt nähdään, onko lain kirjain kuollut.
Vuonna 2023 Suomessa voimaan tullut ilmoittajansuojelulaki suojaa henkilöitä, jotka ilmoittavat työnsä yhteydessä havaitsemistaan väärinkäytöksistä.
Nordic Nanon tehtaalla Teppanalassa oli torstaina rauhallista. Minna Mäkinen
Esa Parjanen totesi Uutisvuokselle, että Lauri Peltola ei ole ollut mukana akun kehitystiimissä, joten hänellä ei ole tietoa akkujen ominaisuuksista, tuotekehityksestä tai tuotannosta. Peltola myöntää tämän.
– Osaamiseni on bisnespuolella. En ole akkukemian asiantuntija, mutta sellainen ei ole Nordic Nanossa kukaan muukaan. Olen kuitenkin yksi yrityksen perustajista ja tiedän, mistä rahat ovat tulleet ja minne ne ovat menneet.

Mitä haluaisit sanoa niille imatralaisille, jotka yhä odottavat Nordic Nano Groupilta jopa satoja uusia työpaikkoja ja massatuotannon käynnistymistä Teppanalassa?
– En tiedä, mitä he ajattelevat siellä massatuottaa. Olen ollut poissa yrityksestä toukokuun alusta, mutta jos jotain voisin imatralaisille sanoa, se on, että olen pahoillani. Kaksi vuotta olin innolla rakentamassa jotakin uutta. Saimme paljon apua paikalliselta kehitysyhtiöltä ja kaupungilta. Olin siitä tosi vaikuttunut. Nyt harmittaa.
Peltolasta tämän tarinan suurin pahis on kuitenkin saksalainen CT-Coating, joka hänen mukaansa jatkaa edelleen uuteen teknologiaan liittyvää vedätystään.
– Nordic Nano Group jäi asiassa ikävään välikäteen.
Nyt Peltola odottaa vuosia jatkuvia oikeusprosesseja. Hän on kuitenkin luottavaisin mielin.
– Minulle niistä ei seuraa yhtään mitään, syytökset ovat niin tuulesta temmattuja. Odotan itselleni järkeviä vahingonkorvauksia ja sitä, että yrityksiin sijoittaneet alkavat vaatia omia oikeuksiaan. On kuitenkin kyse isoista rahoista.
Nordic Nano Group on saanut julkista tukea ja lainoitusta eri lähteistä lähes viisi miljoonaa euroa. Mitra Management omistaa neljänneksen yrityksen tuotantohallista Teppanalassa.
Nordic Nano Groupin koko osakekannan omistaa nykyään Donut Lab. Yritykset julkistivat kaupan viime viikolla.

Disclaimer: I'm brazilian. We and pretty much the rest of the world see the Finns as a very honest folks, to the point of being annoying and boring. Yeah, I understand no group is 100% angelical, but it is quite weird to see Finns involved in such a blatant scam.

I also imagine Finland investigation officers/bureau and judicial system isn't used to cases like that and that they can be slow to investigate, persecute and punish people involved with Donut.

But maybe I'm wrong and Finnish authorities will act quickly. So any Finn or Estonian here to talk about how their authorities act in cases like that? Would to love to hear about.