IFA 2015, Europe’s largest consumer electronics show, is almost nearing its end in Berlin, but this post is not about new gadgets. We found out that two team members of Concepter were not able to attend the event in Berlin and present iblazr2, a LED-flashlight for smartphones… because the Embassy of Germany in Kiev had refused the entry visa to Oleg Malenkov, COO, and Eugene Rogov, business development director.
According to Oleg’s interview to AIN.UA, they presented all the supporting documents, including an official invitation form IFA, bank statements, contracts with distributors, pending patents, and even pictures from IFA 2014. They applied for a business visa via an affiliated agency, which told that it was the first rejection in 5 years and they could not explain it. Only the CEO Vlad Tislenko who held a multiple-entry visa and didn’t need to apply for one will be showing off the product at Concepter’s booth at IFA.
I’ll remind that the first edition of iblazr was available online and at official Apple Stores, Best Buy, Walmart and other stores. When Concepter launched the Kickstarter campaign for the iblazr2, they got more than $250K, three times what they had asked for.