Wireless power-at-a-distance company Reach, whose field-tested, proven technology delivers more point-to-multipoint power over greater distances than any product in the market has announced a $30 million (€28.48 million) Series B financing round, led by deep-tech venture capital firm DCVC.
Reach’s commercial products will wirelessly deliver hundreds of watts of power, connect point-to-multipoint, and transmit over tens of metres and its defense-related systems will deliver even higher power over even greater distances. The company’s novel capability can transform how we power the billions of devices that make up the Internet of Things (IoT).
In industrial, supply-chain, and government settings alike, Reach can untether power in the same way that Wi-Fi untethered data and access to the internet.
Reach’s power platform is highly scalable, safe, and easy-to-use. It is built on state-of-the-art, patented technology, including high-efficiency power-beaming circuits, optimisation algorithms, and adaptive electromagnetic surfaces. A single Reach transmitter can efficiently power many end devices.
With this new funding, Reach is well-positioned to address a breadth of power-related challenges. The company is working toward eliminating charging downtime for autonomous vehicles and drones, enabling the seamless deployment of temporary microgrids for emergency response and military field operations, and powering billions of IoT devices across the world. Eliminating batteries for these applications will also deliver immense environmental impact and cost savings.
“Reach’s mission is to do for power what Wi-Fi has done for data,” says Chris Davlantes, reach founder and CEO. “Our industrial-scale wireless power networks augment electrical wiring with a flexible layer that can be reconfigured in a split second, giving devices unprecedented mobility and functionality. This new investment will enable us to deliver our high-performance wireless power solutions to provide versatile and intelligent power distribution worldwide.”
“Reach is building the most transformative wireless products in a generation in a market 10 times larger than wireless networking,” says Alan S. Cohen, Partner, DCVC. “DCVC partnered with the Reach team because they are positioned to fundamentally change how we power devices across industries.”
Reach is led by a diverse group of electrical engineering, networking, and technology infrastructure industry veterans. Company CEO and founder Chris Davlantes is widely known as a leading technologist in wireless power. Matt Glenn, chief product officer, and Jeff White, chief commercial officer, have founded and grown technology companies, such as Gainspeed, Illumio, Airespace, and Packet Engines, that have delivered breakthrough technology while creating billions of dollars of value.
The industrial-scale wireless power market is expected to grow across manufacturing, government, energy, healthcare, logistics, and retail. Businesses and consumers are as hungry for a flexible connection to power as they are for a flexible connection to data, and they increasingly need a way to power devices that are in locations difficult and expensive to wire electrically, or that are on the move. Batteries offer a temporary solution in such cases, especially for lower-power devices, but they require excessive energy to manufacture, leave a large greenhouse-gas footprint, create e-waste, often incur expensive replacement costs, and sometimes fail. Wireless power eliminates these worries.
According to the Wired & Wireless Technologies (WAWT) projection, the “distance” wireless charging technology segment is expected to see rapid development, with more than 8 billion units of wireless power receivers and transmitters hitting the market in the next five years. Reach’s RF-based solution makes electric power flexible, robust, secure, and reliable.
DCVC led Reach’s Series B with participation from Y Combinator, Transform VC, and Collaborative Fund.
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