Controversial Skarp Laser Razor Kicked Off Kickstarter But Goes To Indiegogo

The demand for new laser razor that would provide a smooth shave is clearly strong enough for people to put up crowdfunding money – what’s not clear is that the Skarp Laser Razor actually exists. The crowdfunding site has officially booted the project from its platform for not presenting evidence of a working prototype.

But even Kickstarter and reality combined can not keep a good idea down: the laser is already back – on Indiegogo.

Indiegogo is not alone in its enthusiasm for the product, “powered by a small laser which cuts through hair for an incredibly close shave without irritating or damaging the skin”.

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After requesting and reviewing additional material from the creator of the project, we’ve concluded that it is in violation of our rule requiring working prototypes of physical products that are offered as rewards.

It only took eight hours for the Skarp team to relaunch their crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. Users will only need to wave the laser razor over the parts of their body that they want to cut hair from, and the hair will simply fall off. This would bypass the usual concerns on using traditional razors such as razor burns, scratches, itching, infection and irritation.

Despite this unconvincing demo, the razor was speedily funded on Kickstarter, steaming past its $160,000 goal to raise $4 million before being suspended. Before being pulled, the project had raised upwards of $US4 million, far past the $US160,000 target.

However, it will be interesting to see if the Kickstarter suspension hurts Skarp’s reputation to the point where it is unable to fund its project a second time. Interestingly, Skarp did post a few videos of their razor working.

Business Insider has reached out to Indiegogo for comment.