Technovator, headquartered in Kepno, Poland, with its R&D operation in Kyiv, Ukraine, 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.
“In early 2014, myself, Ivan Chuba, Ruslana Dovzhyk and Igor Lykhovyi decided to establish a company that would be focused on innovative products” said Leszek Sawicki, now CEO of the startup.
At the time, Leszek and his colleagues held several meetings in Kyiv. On his way to one of them, his smartphone died leaving him no easy way to contact his partners. And so the entrepreneurs decided to come up with a system for wireless charging of smartphones that did not require a plug-in connection, or placing the device on an inductive coupling.
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 XE prototype to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas and received useful feedback to continue its development.
The EU Horizon 2020 fund, a very important EU program dedicated to research and innovation, awarded a grant of 50,000 Euros to Technovator XE in December 2017.
What makes Technovator XE 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 (e.g., there is a special cover for a smartphone to work with XE) when they are within range. 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.
Mr. Sawicki points out that Technovator is still in the process of obtaining CE certification so that it can sell its product in EU countries. He is hoping that after some initial modifications, CE certification will be awarded in the April-May 2018 timeframe.
Additional certifications will later be obtained for the U.S. and other areas where XE will be sold. Leszek currently estimates that actual manufacturing of Technovator XE will begin somewhere in Asia in 2019.
- An interview with CEO Leszek Sawicki discussing his company and product is available here.
