It all started with frustration.
Harri’s, one of the founders’, wife’s phone decided to die just two weeks after the 6-month guarantee had ended. Buying a new 700€ smartphone got the couple so frustrated that they ended up buying an egg timer to track and optimize time when charging the new phone.
Unluckily, or in this founder’s case, luckily, the egg timer decided to die off as well.
Fuelled with frustration Harri decided to solve the problem, and with it the whole charging ideology. The new ideology, called quality charging, is based on green values, better battery lifespan, and safety. The founding team believed that all electronic devices should, simply put, stop charging when the battery is full. Sounds simple, right?
What do they actually do?
In January 2015, a company called BrightCharger Europe Oy Ltd began its operations in a Finnish town called Jyväskylä.
BrightCharger is a design charger that automatically stops devices from charging when their batteries are full, thus saving energy, protecting battery lifespan and decreasing the risk of overheating. BrightCharger has also built a platform for measuring, monitoring and managing any kinds of charging processes. They are in a licensing business and currently working with big industrial partners. Still skeptical? Their design charger sold 10K units in only three months.
Why does this matter?
The requirements for batteries’ longer duration are increasing continuously. Most of the current apps and games with sophisticated graphics and special effects drain battery life dramatically (especially if you keep them running in the background). It’s not only fun and games, due to lower smartphone prices the number of smartphone users is skyrocketing. The need to be online all the time is becoming a global phenomenon, and it’s increasing the need for batteries to last longer.
Hardships and success of entrepreneurship
Having a genuinely international team (they have a presence in Jyväskylä, Helsinki, Atlanta, Orlando, Taipei, Shanghai, and Brussels!), BrightCharger has come across something most of the early-stage startups struggle: Recruiting the right people. “It’s impossible to recruit people based on their CVs and without conducting any work-related tasks beforehand,” says Jani, BrightCharger’s CEO. The biggest success? “The fact that we’re already negotiating with market leaders about licensing our technology for chargers and charging outlets. It all has happened in a very short period”.
Find BrightCharger pitching at the Startup Sauna Demo Day at Slush on the 30th of November, starting at 16:30 at Startup Station.
