Magnetika, a Catalan start-up that aims to “revolutionize” electric charging

2023-08-13 06:30:22

Magnetika has been working for five years to transform the burden of bicycles and electric scooters through a wireless technology based on magnetic resonance. Currently, this ‘start up’ founded in Barcelona in 2018 is in full growth phase and has opened a funding round with which it wants to raise up to one million euros to spread its innovations on the market and scale them internationally . “We aim to revolutionize the wireless transfer of energy to allow flexible charging, at a distance and that provides greater comfort than we have today”, explains the executive director of the firm, Eugeni Llagostera, from a studio located at the headquarters of Tech Barcelona in Barceloneta.

To increase the practicality of electric charging of vehicles such as scooters or bicycles, Magnetika has developed prototypes of wireless chargers for stations that allow batteries to be filled through invisible waves that pose no risk to the user. With this system, Llagostera points out, time is saved and vandalism or misuse of devices is avoided. It also eliminates the need to manually collect and change empty batteries from shared bikes or scooters, a common practice that generates inefficiency and increases costs.

According to the entrepreneur, this ‘wireless’ technology was born at MIT, in the United States, but now they are improving it from Catalonia to reduce energy loss with patents such as MagCharger, a wireless charger for electric micromobility (scooters and bicycles, among others). They also work hand in hand with companies and organizations such as Napptilus Battery Labs or the UPC in a research project promoted by Barcelona City Council and Fundació La Caixa to create a wireless fast charging battery prototype for a mobility service electricity in the Catalan capital.

“We are preparing projects to implement this technology in final customer products. We have made several prototypes with companies and our business model is based on licensing this technology so that it can be integrated into the products of companies that do large-scale production”, they emphasize from Magnetika. One of the advantages of its technology, Llagostera points out, is that the charger and device do not need to be attached or perfectly aligned. This is useful beyond micromobility, in fact they also think about magnetic charging of other electronic devices such as phones, computers, screens or drones.

If they manage to collect the million euros that have been set as a goal by the end of the year, Magnetika plans to expand the workforce – currently there are six employees – and overcome the development phase to reach more customers. To do this, they have contacted investment funds, ‘business angels’ and entered the Crowdcube platform, which puts retail investors in contact with emerging companies. In the short term, they want to expand the laboratory and its development areas. As Llagostera acknowledges, the creation of new charging technologies is necessary to speed up the electrification of mobility, a process that in the State is somewhat behind schedule and that it has caused sales of electric cars, for example, to take off. “With this technology, in the case of transport, it is an advantage and offers another way to get rid of fossil fuels and bet on electrification”, emphasizes the entrepreneur.