Creating wireless charging technology that actually works
Energysquare is building a new wireless charging standard, with the aim of taking the power cables of our work devices out of the equation. We are very excited to announce our investment in the company.
A universal pain
We all know the pain: going to a meeting to then realize
that your laptop’s battery will fail soon, because you did not plug it in earlier
at your desk. You might have tried putting charging stations in your meeting
rooms, just like we did at Partech, however this quickly turns into a real
mess.
The ultimate solution would be to charge your laptop, both on your desk and in your meeting rooms, without the hassle of plugging in cables. This is where wireless charging comes into the picture.
When Giants can’t
beat physics
Nikola Tesla demonstrated in the late 19th century already,
that you can transmit electricity through the air by creating a magnetic field
between two circuits, in this case a charging pad and your device. This
physical phenomenon is called electromagnetic induction, and is used in
wireless charging technology for phones, through the so-called Qi standard.
Inductive charging might sound like magic, but actually the
user experience is far from enchanting. You will have to wait 2-3x times longer
than you normally would to have your phone fully charged and if your phone is
not perfectly positioned on the charging pad, your phone will die before your
alarm wakes you up in the morning. On top of that, you are wasting a lot of
energy that goes to heating up your phone. Positioning, speed and energy losses
are all innate limitations of inductive charging, which cannot charge devices
larger than smartphones.
Over the past 7 years, however, all major electronics companies, think among others Apple, Intel and Qualcomm, have invested billions in trying to solve these issues and make inductive charging work. They however have not succeeded to build a solution that is safe, energy-efficient and reliable, and relevant to devices beyond smartphones.
A radically different
solution
Four years ago, Timothée Le Quesne (CEO) and Daniel Lollo
(CTO), 2 brilliant French engineers, understood the limitations of inductive
wireless charging and started working on a fundamentally different approach
leveraging conduction. Here, you
send a charge through a (set of) conductive materials to your device, much like
a normal charging cable does. Why has no one thought about it before? Because
it is very complex to safely and accurately send energy in the right amount at
the right time to right place on the surface.
However, it is exactly here that the technology called Power by Contact® developed by Timothée and Daniel makes the difference. It is a set of advanced microelectronics and algorithms, allowing users to charge all their devices simultaneously on a single surface, at maximum speed, with no electromagnetic waves, no energy loss and most importantly no safety risk. Touching the tiles or even spilling liquids on them is totally harmless! If your device is equipped with Energysquare technology, all you have to do is place your device on the charging tiles. It will recognize the type of device you are working on, to then charge it safely, efficiently and as fast as your normal charger would through two small electrodes that can for instance be integrated in the anti-slip feet underneath your laptop, or in the case of your phone.
From a school lab to
a Lenovo manufacturing plant
What initially started as a research project at one of the
leading technical universities in France, Telecom Paris, grew into a larger
mission. To bring their technology to market, Timothée and Daniel decided to
start a company and called it Energysquare.
Initially, they ran a successful Kickstarter campaign targeting
end-users directly. This allowed them to build, sell and ship their own
hardware. However, as the aim was to have scalable, wide and integrated
adoption of their technology, the team shifted their focus from selling
products to end-customers directly, to selling technology on a royalty basis to
large electronics companies.
Today, Energysquare is
building an impressive ecosystem of partners, willing to adopt and license
their technology. Firstly, they validate the willingness to adopt their
solution with buyers of huge fleets of computers, such as groups like Renault
or Orange. Secondly, they go to large computer manufacturers convincing them to
implement their charging technology in their hardware. Lastly, they partner
with electrical equipment companies such as Legrand, that will be building,
selling and integrating the charging tiles.
Navigating this complex sales network is obviously far from an easy task for a young company, but with their strongly resonating value proposition, patented technology, a well-structured sales process and a team with deep expertise, they are convincing some of the biggest players out there. After winning the CES Best of Innovation Award among more than 4500 companies, they managed to close a technology partnership with Lenovo to integrate Energysquare technology into one of their product families.
A strong team
operating a highly scalable model
At Partech, we’ve been
following Timothée and Daniel for quite some time. From the beginning, we were
impressed by their ambition, resilience and diligence. Since our first
interactions, we witnessed their ability to iterate fast and reach impressive
milestones. We are happy to back the whole Energysquare team, on their mission
to build a new wireless charging standard. We are convinced that if they manage
to do so, their royalty-based business model will make them not only a very
impactful but also incredibly profitable business.
With the new funds, Energysquare will continue to hire in France, and add a presence in Taiwan and the USA to gain further commercial traction and prove the merit of their technology at scale.
Visit Energysquare.co
for more information.
