Wi-Charge shuts down after 14 years trying to make wireless power a reality
The Israeli company developed room-scale wireless energy transmission and sold its technology in dozens of countries, but struggled to overcome slow adoption, hardware costs and a persistent chicken-and-egg problem.
Wi-Charge is shutting down after 14 years of operation, co-founder and director Ori Mor announced Sunday in a farewell post on LinkedIn.
Mor used the post to summarize the company's technological journey and thank the team, partners and investors who supported it over the years.
The company was founded with an ambitious goal: to eliminate charging cables by transmitting electricity through the air using infrared beams. According to Mor, Wi-Charge became one of the few companies in the world to bring room-scale wireless power transmission from the laboratory to commercial deployment, with products sold in dozens of countries.
But despite its engineering achievements and extensive patent portfolio, the company ultimately failed to achieve the commercial scale it had hoped for.
One of its biggest obstacles was a classic chicken-and-egg problem with original equipment manufacturers. Manufacturers were reluctant to integrate wireless-power receivers into their products without widespread deployment of transmitters, while deployment was difficult to achieve without manufacturers first building the technology into their products.
At the same time, wireless charging was often viewed as a convenience rather than a necessity, making it harder to persuade consumers and manufacturers to adopt the technology.
The slow pace of market adoption was particularly difficult for a hardware company, where development and manufacturing require substantial capital long before a business can reach scale. According to Mor, that combination made it increasingly difficult for Wi-Charge to raise the funding needed to expand.
Over 14 years, the company raised approximately $23 million from venture capital funds and strategic investors. That included early investments, a $13.4 million round from the European Innovation Council's EIC Fund and additional funding rounds led by the investment arm of Standard Investments.
Wi-Charge was founded and led by Mor, Ortal Alpert and Victor Vaisleib, with its technology team led by Eli Zlatkin.
The company's closure marks the end of a long effort to turn wireless power transmission into an everyday technology. While Wi-Charge was unable to build a large commercial business around the technology, Mor argued that the underlying concept remains viable.
He ended his farewell message on an optimistic note, saying he believes wireless energy transfer is ultimately inevitable and that the infrastructure and technological groundwork built by Wi-Charge could allow future companies to complete what it started.
