Sextech Company Lora DiCarlo Closes Amid Bankruptcy Speculation

Is Lora DiCarlo Offline And Going Out Of Business?

Yes, the Lora DiCarlo website remains offline (since November 2022) and although we have yet to receive an official confirmation from the company, it appears to be out of business for good.

Several of our team members recently tested Lora DiCarlo’s Baci clit sucker as part of our standard review process for updating our roundup of the best clit sucking vibrators.

As the team organized its top picks, we reached out to our contacts at Lora DiCarlo regarding their offline status at ShareASale.

As any publisher or influencer who works with brands in this manner well knows, affiliate partners sometimes go offline from these platforms temporarily — it happens, and it’s normally not a big deal.

They’re typically back online within a few hours or days, at most.

Less than a minute after sending our email to a (now former) C-suite employee at Lora DiCarlo, however, we received this cryptic auto-response:

Our CEO, Chris Fernandez, immediately reached out to the last provided contact email address for Lora Haddock DiCarlo (the company’s founder and CEO) for more information and has not received a response although all emails to the loradicarlo.com domain are being returned by mail delivery system bots.

Throughout this time, we discovered that Lora DiCarlo products were becoming unavailable (out of stock) at various vendors who had previously carried them.

On the evening of November 2, 2022, we went to the Lora DiCarlo website to find a phone number with the intention of calling the company directly the following day.

That was when we discovered that the website had been taken offline and has since remained unreachable.

We tested across multiple down detection sites to be sure it wasn’t just us:

We also tested the connection on multiple browsers — including one behind a VPN (Opera).

Regardless of the browser (or location), the site is 100% unreachable and has been since November 2, 2022, the day we initially discovered and confirmed it was offline.

In the absence of the website and being unable to reach any current Lora DiCarlo associates directly for confirmation (via phone or email), we turned to social media — thinking perhaps there might be some buzz happening somewhere.

We scoped out Lora DiCarlo’s social channels to see if we could glean any information about the state of the company or its products, however, there has been little of note:

• On Facebook, their last post was on October 12, 2022
• On Twitter, their last post was published on January 30, 2023 (an automated link drop to an inaccessible product review on the loradicarlo.com domain)
• On Instagram, their last reel was published on September 29, 2022

On LinkedIn, nothing seemed gravely amiss, save for past partnership contacts having left the company — although the employee count has dwindled significantly since we began reporting on this story in early November.

On November 4, 2022, we began receiving direct reports from customers who wished to inquire about the status of outstanding orders and who were unable to reach the company via its website, email address(s), or associated phone numbers.

In one case, a paid order placed through the Lora DiCarlo website had been left unfulfilled for more than one month. As of November 5, 2022, the customer’s credit card company was placing the transaction in dispute, which we were told would trigger an investigation into the vendor.

That customer explained to us that in the beginning, the company responded to her inquiry and said they were experiencing delays. Since that initial contact, however, all subsequent email inquiries about her order have gone unanswered.

Additionally, the phone number listed with the credit card charge reaches a Google voicemail for an unavailable subscriber.

On November 7, 2022, a confirmed source alerted us to having contacted a now-former Lora DiCarlo (company) senior advisor regarding outstanding invoices yet to be paid by the company.

We were given a copy of the email response from that former senior advisor stating to the recipient that their understanding “is that the company is going to imminently be filing for bankruptcy.”

Bankruptcy remains unconfirmed although we are monitoring PACER for any potential filing.

One customer I spoke with told me that she’d originally made a purchase that supposedly shipped on September 8th, 2022, complete with a FedEx tracking number.

She never received the product and reached out to the company, receiving responses that Lora DiCarlo’s logistics team was in contact with FedEx to resolve the shipping issue.

On October 6th, almost a month later, the customer was given the option to replace the order or process a refund.

She opted to replace the order and was told that the replacement order was being processed on October 11th, along with a refund of the shipping costs from her original order.

As of November 17, 2022, the customer had not received the replacement and had been unable to reach anyone at Lora DiCarlo for further assistance.

“It is indeed worrisome that any online company can just walk away like this and leave its customers hanging,” she told me.

“It sets a troubling precedent. Also, because of the personal nature of their business, it is likely that some clients will hesitate to announce their victimization publicly and just ‘let it go.'”

Additionally, she noted having serious concerns regarding her personal information — along with that of the company’s other customers — wondering what might happen to sensitive data (such as credit card information) that had previously been submitted if the company has indeed folded.

As of February 2, 2023, the company had not yet released an official statement regarding its status.

What Is Going On And Is Lora DiCarlo Closing?

Without official confirmation from the company itself and as more information is being brought to light, all signs point to yes — Lora DiCarlo appears to be out of business for good.

From our perspective and as we continue to try to make contact with anyone at Lora DiCarlo who can provide information or a statement, signs are pointing to serious and long-standing trouble within the company, the full extent of which currently remains unknown.

Women’s Health Interactive noted recently that Lora DiCarlo products were going out of stock at various other vendors that had previously carried their award-winning vibrators.

That, combined with the extended offline status of their affiliate network, recent employee flight (layoffs), the Lora DiCarlo website being down for months, and customers reaching out to report long-standing, unfulfilled orders leads us to believe that the company is done for.

Additionally, one confirmed source shared an email response from a former Lora DiCarlo (company) advisor stating that their understanding is the company would be filing for bankruptcy “imminently.”

A bankruptcy status has not yet been confirmed.

How To Get Your Money Back If You Made A Lora DiCarlo Purchase

If you placed an order with Lora DiCarlo in recent months and have yet to receive your products or a refund, our best advice is to contact your bank or credit card company directly to begin the process of filing a claim.

You would dispute the transaction(s) as being due to a failure to receive goods or services.

Many of the customers we’ve spoken with personally have begun going this route, as all attempts at reaching anyone (remaining) within the company to resolve such issues have failed — in some cases, for longer than 2 months.

The Fair Credit Billing Act (FCBA) has a process in place for disputing charges.

When complaints are under investigation, a creditor can’t take legal action regarding payments (including finance charges), nor can they threaten to report your account as delinquent as a result of a refusal to pay disputed amounts — as long as a complaint has been filed.

Until the moment a company files for bankruptcy, they are technically obligated to do one of two things — fulfill the order, or issue a refund.

But again, to do either, one must first be able to reach the company.

For this reason, to begin the process of resolution, our best advice is to file a complaint directly with your bank, credit card, or payment method that was used to make your purchase.

Upon bankruptcy, assets are distributed in a specific waterfall order that begins with secured claims having top priority.

If (or when) Lora DiCarlo files for bankruptcy, you may opt to file a Proof Of Claim using Form 410 with the US Federal Courts, however, this avenue is only accessible if a bankruptcy case is opened.

Liquidated company assets (as mentioned above) are then distributed in priority order.

Lora DiCarlo Financial Condition: Investments, Funding, And Annual Earnings

According to Crunchbase, Lora DiCarlo (founded by Lora Haddock DiCarlo, CEO, and operating under the legal name, Uccellini, Inc.) had successfully raised $9.2 million across 8 rounds of funding that included grants, seed rounds, funding rounds, and Series A between October 2017 and January 2022. 

The last round of successful fundraising, a Series A that closed on January 2, 2022, came about after a crowdfunding campaign on the Republic platform was withdrawn less than two months prior.

The Republic campaign was initiated by Lora DiCarlo in April 2021 and garnered 3,339 individual investors, collectively raising $1,723,766.

The funds were slated to be used “to continue scaling our business and developing technological innovations to help people explore their sexuality with positivity and confidence.”

By the middle of November of that year, however, Republic withdrew the campaign because Lora DiCarlo filed new information regarding an executive who left the company.

That executive sold their equity to a new shareholder through a private sale, which put the fundraising campaign in jeopardy.

After Republic withdrew the campaign, investors were notified that their monies were refunded:

In an email message to investors after the campaign was withdrawn, Lora DiCarlo shared, “It is with a heavy heart that we share this news with you today: the compliance team at Republic has decided to withdraw our campaign. This means that your investment will be refunded, and no SAFEs will be issued.”

At that time, DiCarlo expressed that “the company is thriving and moving forward” in a direct email to our own CEO, a Republic investor who had his investment returned after the campaign was withdrawn.

On November 22, 2021, the Series A was opened, raising $1.1 million from 6 investors.

This was the last round of successful fundraising on record.

It is worth noting that Crunchbase reported an undisclosed funding round for Lora DiCarlo on November 14, 2022, which opened and closed after the Lora DiCarlo website had gone dark, however, no investors (or monetary amounts) are listed.

In terms of company earnings, Lora DiCarlo had approximately $7.5 million in sales during 2020 (up from $0 in 2019) — the most recent earnings report we could find — but was never profitable.

Additionally, a deeper look into the background of the Lora DiCarlo company casts a doubtful light upon the validity of some of the company’s claims regarding its products, including the development of its technology and even the woman behind the brand.

In Conclusion

Lora DiCarlo is offline and although it came as a surprise to us, it didn’t exactly come out of the blue.

Although the company has yet to release an official statement on the matter, it appears as though it has ceased operations and disappeared quietly — although certainly not without being noticed.

We are updating this article regularly with more information as we’re able to obtain it.