Look, Ma – No Battery! PsiKick Gets $16.5M for Self-Sustaining IoT

News Analysis Dan Jones, Mobile Editor 12/30/2015

IoT-focused startup PsiKick has raised $16.5 million in Series B funding for its self-sustaining low-power system-on-a-chip technology.

One of biggest challenges facing advocates of the Internet of Things (IoT) -- the concept that billions of new devices, from gas sensors to kettles, will get connected to wireless networks -- is battery life. With sensor-type devices, the battery life needs to be in the tens-of-years range as it will be uneconomic to replace batteries on a more regular basis. Yet many modern wireless radios -- at least in stock form -- will burn through battery life very quickly. (See Tea's Up: The IoT Is Boiling!)

For more on IoT trends, visit the Internet of Things channel on Light Reading.

Enter PsiKick Inc., a Santa Clara, Calif.-based startup, which has developed a batteryless technology for sensors that harvests energy from "indoor and outdoor solar, thermal gradients, RF, vibration, and more," according to its technology primer.

"Our technology provides the fundamental building blocks upon which a trillion-sensor world will be built," claims the company. "By creating truly self-powered sensing solutions, we endeavor to free the world from the constraints of batteries and enable a true Internet of Everything."

The latest $16.5 million round is led by Osage University Partners and joined by existing investors New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and the University of Michigan Investment in New Technologies Fund (MINTS), as well as angel investors. The startup, which was formed in summer 2012, has raised more than $22 million in VC funding. The new money will go towards hiring more engineers to further develop its batteryless IoT systems.

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— Dan Jones, Mobile Editor, Light Reading