NOTE 8. EQUITY METHOD INVESTMENT

On April 5, 2024, Aspire North America entered into a capital contribution, subscription, and joint venture agreement with several other parties. Pursuant to joint venture agreement, the parties created a legal entity, IKE Tech LLC (“IKE”), whose business is licensing, owning, operating and developing an industry-standard age-verification solution for vapor (e-cigarette) devices in the U.S. market as the related planned submission of PMTA applications that seek FDA marketing orders for cutting-edge technologies across the U.S. e-cigarette market. Ispire contributed $1 million to IKE in cash for funding its operating activities and entered into a binding commitment to make an additional capital contribution to IKE in the aggregate amount of up to $9 million. In exchange for Ispire’s total investment of $10 million, IKE issued to Ispire membership interests in an aggregate amount initially equal to forty percent (40%) of the membership interests in IKE.

As of June 30, 2026 and 2025, the investment in joint venture accounted for under the equity method amounted to $8,611,823 and $9,515,546. As of June 30, 2026, the carrying amount of the investment exceeded the Company’s 40% share of IKE’s net assets, which is accounted for as equity method goodwill and is not subject to amortization. As of June 30, 2026, the Company noticed no indicator of impairment regarding the investment.

For the years ended June 30, 2026 and 2025, the Company’s share of the joint venture’s net loss was $903,723 and $732,502. The loss was included in “other (expense) income, net” in the consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss.

The tables below present the summarized financial information, as provided to the Company by the investee, for the unconsolidated company: