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On Tuesday, Seattle’s MetaPower, an early mover in the development of emerging, mmWave Intelligent Wireless Power for industrial IoT clients that does not rely on copper-based sensor networks, announced that it is one of 12 startups newly added to the 5G Open Innovation Lab (5G OIL).
The 5G OIL is an ecosystem of startups, enterprise and industry partners, and investors who collaborate on the development of new technologies and solutions leveraging the power of edge computing and 5G. The Lab’s active corporate and industry partners include Intel, Microsoft, T-Mobile, Dell Technologies, Amdocs, VMware, Avanade, F5, Spirent, Ericsson, CNH Industries, Nokia, and Palo Alto Networks, along with more than 100 venture capital investors. Corporate and industry partners work directly with participating startups to provide business and technical mentorship and collaborate on potential proof of concept, go to market, and other engagements and opportunities.
“Our inclusion in the upcoming Batch 5 (ed: fifth cohort of 5G OIL participants) program comes at the perfect time. We have successfully completed initial functional prototypes and launched our early access program with leading companies in Industrial IoT and controls. Our participation will supercharge development of our production systems built around 5G technologies.” said MetaPower CEO Mark Waldenberg in comment on the partnership. “Having direct access to leading technology companies will help us deliver compelling use cases and a Go-to-Market plan that maximizes value for our industrial customers.”
“We welcome MetaPower as a new member in our Batch 5 program,” said Jim Brisimitzis, Managing Partner at 5G OIL. “Their unique combination of leveraging 5G technologies and edge computing aligns perfectly to our ecosystem focus.”
MetaPower’s business is built around beam-forming technology called SmartLink: specifically, software-defined antennas that can focus power on a moving receiver and follow it in real-time, by forming narrow converging beams or exploiting multi-path environments. This creates a remote-power link that can provide power across distances of several feet to hundreds of feet, even through fog and dust. A modular solution by design, the system’s power level and transfer distance can be increased as needed by tiling together additional transmitters. MetaPower’s system operates within an unlicensed spectrum band (ISM) and requires very little bandwidth, such that WiFi, Bluetooth, and other wireless communication protocols can continue to operate in its presence.
The company has several specific objectives planned for its 5G OIL collaboration. MetaPower says it will access advanced testing facilities that are otherwise outside the reach of an early-stage startup to conduct cutting-edge testing and validation of system deployment scenarios using advanced 5G network capabilities, mmWave wireless power beaming, and edge computing. It will jumpstart development of a production cloud solution for installation, secure operation, and monitoring of SmartLink. It will develop and validate commercial use cases in key 5G industry verticals, integrating technology from partner companies that focus on AI/ML, industrial machine vision, and security.
In July 2021, MetaPower launched an Early Access Program tailored to key industrial partners seeking to evaluate MetaPower’s cutting-edge 24Ghz wireless power platform and cloud connectivity technologies.
“We now have a unique market opportunity to leverage years of advanced wireless power research and development and redefine how wireless power can enable and speed Digital Transformation for large commercial and industrial enterprises,” MetaPower’s Waldenberg said at the time the program was announced. “Our core technology platform offers a compelling combination of power density, dynamic power ranges and distances, fast beam-switching, and autonomous operation that enables brand new capabilities for partners in the Manufacturing, Energy, and Critical Infrastructure vertical markets and pushes them even closer to full realization of Industry 4.0.”
MetaPower was founded at Intellectual Ventures Labs in Bellevue, Washington, and has been designing wireless power applications as a startup within the the lab’s Invention Science Fund since 2016.
