Wireless recharging device developer Powermat Ltd. has set up a joint venture with Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE: PG) battery unit Duracell to market wireless power mats. Duracell will also invest in Powermat.
Sources inform ''Globes'' that the joint venture follows Powermat's unsuccessful attempt to raise capital from private equity funds.
Powermat targets end-users of smart portable devices, which are ever more power hungry, creating the need for a wireless charging technology that keeps those devices always ready. Penetrating the market and consolidating a position requires massive financial support and aggressive marketing as much as technological R&D. Powermat has the latter, and Duracell can provide the former.
The joint venture, Duracell Powermat, will launch in 2012 to sell Powermat's wire recharging mats. P&G will own 55% of the joint venture. The venture could lead to further collaboration, if P&G decided that Powermat's financial performance improves as a result of the joint venture. This is a path followed by many Israeli start-ups in the past - collaboration with a multinational leading to acquisition.
Powermat CEO Ran Poliakine and Dr. Amir Ben Shalom founded the company in 2006. The company's wireless mats can recharge MP3s, smartphones, and other popular devices. It mostly operates in the US, where it sells through national retails such as Wal Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) and Best Buy Inc. (NYSE: BBY). The company has raised $30 million to date, mostly from private investors.
Poliakine has said that his target was five million mat sales by 2010. It is not known if the company met the target, but it is generating money. Israel Venture Capital reports that it had $80-90 million in sales in 2010, up to five times sales in 2009.
Powermat is the main player in the wireless recharging market, but it faces future competition from the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC), which has set a standard for wireless recharging, called Qi. Duracell, Energizer Battery Company, Panasonic Corporation (TSE: 6752; NYSE: PC), LG Corporation (KSX: 3350), Taiwan's HTC Corporation (TWSE: 2498), Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (KSX: 5930), Nokia Corporation (NYSE; LSE; HEX: NOK), Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, Royal Philips Electronics NV (Euronext: PHIA, NYSE: PHG), and Haier Group (HKSE: 1169, SSE: 600690) have already joined the WPC, accepting its standard. Powermat only joined in May 2011.
Duracell already sells its own wireless recharger, MyGrid, which competes against Powermat.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 15, 2011
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