Startup raises $1.2m for 5mm thick charger
While initial sales are expected for small stand-alone power conversion units the company is also indicating that it may be possible in the future to include the charger within personal devices.
Kado has two models, one for smartphones and tablets and one for laptop computers which it claims is the world’s first foldable charger. AltaIR Capital participated in the seed round. The company intends to launch a Series A crowdfunding round in order to prepare for commercial launch of its products in 2017.
The 21-gram Kado Wallet supplies up to 10 watts and can also charge other mobile devices, such as tablets, cameras, wireless speakers and headphones. The foldable Kado Sleeve for laptops weighs 97 grams and provides up to 70 watts. It has two USB ports for the simultaneous charging of a laptop and a smaller device, such as a smartphone or a tablet.
The company is in the process of selecting a Chinese or Taiwanese contract manufacturer to make conversion modules. It then expects to sell these modules to other companies who will create and market thin chargers
However, the company declined to tell eeNews Europe much about how it achieves the low profile and high power conversion density of its chargers although the technology is said to be the subject of patent applications.
Next: What the company says
“We developed a new power conversion topology/method, which allows us to use very small and thin components – components that cannot be used in the traditional way. More specifically, there are several known methods to shrink the size of the components. The most well-known method is to raise the frequency of the conversion. We did not use this specific method, but we rather used a completely different topology in order to design a circuit that works in a different method and therefore requires small components. Additionally, we combined knowledge in physics and magnetics in order to design new and suitable magnetics,” the company said through a spokesman.
Despite not using high frequency switch-mode power conversion the efficiency of the 10W charger is 85 percent, Kado claims. For higher power chargers, the efficiency will be 90 percent or higher.
Co-CEOs Itay Hasid and Daniel Assis and other partners founded Kado in May 2016. The two had sold their previous startup, Mobeego, to Life Clips Inc. for $6 million in 2015 after selling half a million disposable chargers in three months. Kado has 11 employees and plans to hire more specialists in analog power conversion, mechanics, and materials.
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