Startup Technovator is a Ukrainian-Polish effort to bring to the global market a new type of wireless charging technology for smart devices and other electronic products.
Headquartered in Kepno, Poland, with its research and development center in Kyiv, Ukraine, Technovator is developing a system for wireless charging of smartphones that does not require a plug-in connection, or placing the device on an inductive coupling.
A Technovator device allows wireless charging of other devices at a distance up to 5 meters.
What makes Technovator different than other existing induction wireless technologies is that up to four smart devices can be charged simultaneously at a distance up to 5 meters (almost 17 feet). The system is designed to automatically charge receiver-equipped devices when they are within range. The devices, however, have to be in a Technovator case. Other wireless induction charging systems require that the device being charged is placed very close to (two inches or less) or directly on top of a specially equipped coupler.
The first prototype of the wireless charging system was developed in the fall of 2015. Their product Technovator XE won first place in the Vernadsky Challenge engineering startup competition held in April 2016 in Dnipro, Ukraine. In January 2017, the entrepreneurs took their prototypes to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas and received useful feedback to continue its development.
The Horizon 2020 fund, a European Union program dedicated to research and innovation, awarded a grant of 50,000 euros to Technovator XE in December 2017.
The CEO of the company, Leszek Sawicki, points out that Technovator is still in the process of obtaining consumer electronics certification so that it can sell its product in EU countries. He is hoping that after some initial modifications, the certification will be awarded in the April-May 2018 timeframe.
Additional certifications will later be obtained for the U.S. and other areas where Technovator will be sold. Leszek currently estimates that actual manufacturing of Technovator will begin in Asia in 2019.
This article was first published by Ukraine Digital News.
