Item 1. Business
Item 1. Business
Overview
We have developed a scalable, over-the-air Wireless Power Network (“WPN”) technology that integrates advanced semiconductor chipsets, software controls, hardware designs, and antenna systems to enable radio frequency (“RF”)-based charging for Internet of Things (“IoT”) devices. Our WPN technology provides a comprehensive suite of capabilities designed to power the next generation of wireless energy networks, seamlessly delivering power and data across diverse, battery-free device ecosystems. This innovation enhances operational visibility, control, and intelligent business automation.
Our solutions support both near-field and at-a-distance wireless charging, supplying power at multiple levels across varying distances. By enabling continuous wireless power transmission, our transmitter and receiver technologies facilitate the use of battery-free IoT devices, transforming asset and inventory tracking across multiple industries. Key applications include retail sensors, electronic shelf labels, asset trackers, air quality monitors, motion detectors, and other smart monitoring solutions.
We believe our technology represents a breakthrough in wireless power delivery, offering a differentiated approach to charging IoT devices via RF technology. To date, we have developed and released multiple transmitter and receiver solutions, including prototypes and partner production designs. Our transmitters vary in form factor, power specifications, and operating frequencies, while our receivers are engineered to support a wide range of wireless charging applications across multiple device categories. including:
Device Type
Application
RF Tags
Cold Chain, Asset Tracking, Medical IoT
IoT Sensors
Cold Chain, Logistics, Asset Tracking
Electronic Shelf Labels
Retail and Industrial IoT
The first WPN-enabled end product featuring our technology entered the market in 2019. In the fourth quarter of 2021, we commenced shipments of our first at-a-distance wireless PowerBridge transmitter systems for commercial IoT applications and proof-of-concept deployments. As we continue to innovate our technology applications, we anticipate the release of additional wireless power-enabled products.
Our common stock is listed on The Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol “WATT.” Incorporated in Delaware in 2012, our corporate headquarters is located at 3590 North First Street, Suite 210, San Jose, CA 95134. Additional information is available on our website at www.energous.com. The information contained on, or that may be obtained from our website, is not, and shall not be deemed to be, part of this Report.
Our Business Strategy
We believe that a large market opportunity lies in wire-free, low-power charging at-a-distance, which might develop as the Wi-Fi ecosystem develops. The goal is to ensure interoperability between transmitters and receivers that are based on our technology, regardless of who makes them, installs them into finished goods, or markets them. The implementation of previous ubiquitous solutions, such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, illustrates our goal. For example, Wi-Fi routers, regardless of their designer or manufacturer, work with Wi-Fi receivers installed in consumer electronics, regardless of manufacturer. We endeavor to:
● Build multiple integrated circuits (“ICs”) to advance our technology;
● Develop, license, and manufacture a complete transmitter system solutions to enable wireless power network growth;
● Develop reference designs to reduce early adopter risks, enable easier integration at lower costs, and foster adoption;
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● Continue to build additional value by converging networking, power, and data to provide smarter vertical solutions in the retail, industrial, healthcare, and logistic markets through our PowerBridge products designed for powering next generation IoT devices. Our first applications include RF tags, electronic shelf labels (“ESLs”) and IoT sensors;
● Partner with leading technology providers, systems integrators, and value-added resellers (“VARs”);
● Provide cost effective benefits to customers in terms of utility and convenience;
● Develop and execute a strategy to gain global regulatory approval for ubiquitous unlimited distance charging; and
● Support the AirFuel Alliance (“AFA”), which recently announced that AirFuel RF, the radio frequency-based wireless charging technology from AFA, is now an industry standard, underpinning the compatibility of our WPN technology across a variety of vendors and development of a common user experience at the application level.
For our technology to become a ubiquitous solution for charging at-a-distance, we intend to pursue and build an ecosystem strategy, engaging not only potential customers for our transmitter, receiver, and power amplifier IC’s and solutions but also their upstream and downstream value chain partners. We intend to capitalize on our first-to-market advantage and prioritize protection of our intellectual property portfolio, as we believe this strategy will increase the barrier to entry for a competing platform to gain a solid foothold in the RF-based wireless charging market and compete with our technology in a meaningful way.
To engage with potential customers, we offer several evaluation kits consisting of a transmitter and a receiver along with a custom software application, allowing potential strategic partners to test the technology in their labs. The kits form a base “building block” component that is scalable to meet the needs of specific applications.
To validate our technology, we originally engaged with customers that were smaller, more nimble early adopters with relatively short product cycles, with the aim of shipping fully integrated WPN solutions to customers as quickly as possible. As the market and our technology reaches a more mature phase, we are now engaging larger, top-tier customers able to use our WPN solutions in mass quantities. We are also working with companies with much longer product cycles in multiple vertical markets to integrate our technology into a cost-effective strategic solution specific to their respective use cases.
Impact of Current Global Economic Conditions on Our Business
Uncertainty in the global economy presents significant risks to our business. We are subject to continuing exposure relating to the current macroeconomic environment, including inflation and rising interest rates, geopolitical factors, including the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine as well as in the Middle East and the responses thereto, and supply chain disruptions. We are closely monitoring the impact of these factors on all aspects of our business, including their impact on our operations, financial position, cash flow, inventory, supply chains, global regulatory approvals, purchasing trends, customer payments, and the industry in general, in addition to the impact on our employees.
Our Technology
Our award-winning, RF-based, scalable WPN solutions enable wireless charging, ranging from contact-based applications to at-a-distance applications, that charge over the air, transforming the way electronic devices are charged and powered.
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Figure 1 below shows the current IC product line for Energous Wireless Power Solutions:
Our small form factor antenna and one-transmitter-to-multiple receivers capabilities produce significant advantages over RF-beamforming transmitters, which are larger, and higher cost wireless power technology implementations. Our current generation ICs have significantly reduced the size and cost of both our transmitter technology and our receiver technology, and products under development are designed to further reduce size and cost. In addition, our ICs are designed for both lower-power and higher-power applications, efficiency and faster synchronization, while working within the constraints of multiple international regulatory environments.
Figure 2 below shows the block diagram for our Energous PowerBridge PRO Transmitter System
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Our Competition
Competing methods for charging battery-powered devices include wall plug-in charging, inductive charging, magnetic resonance charging and more. To our knowledge, almost all consumer electronics equipped with a rechargeable battery come bundled with a charging method, such as a power cord. We believe the advantages of our wireless power network technology - including size, cost, mobility, foreign object detection, and portability - coupled with the unique capability to charge devices both on contact as well as at-a-distance in a fully compatible ecosystem, will foster broad adoption of the technology over time.
A variety of wireless charging technologies are on the market or under development today. These competitive technologies fall into the following short-range categories:
Inductive Coil Charging. Inductive coil charging uses a magnetic coil to create resonance, which can transmit energy over very short distances. Essentially this is a contact technology whereby the transmitter and receiver need to be closely aligned to charge. Power is delivered as a function of coil size (the larger the coil, the more power), and coils must be directly paired (one receiver coil to one transmitter coil = directly coupled pair). Products utilizing magnetic induction have been available for 10+ years in products such as rechargeable electronic toothbrushes.
Magnetic Resonance. Magnetic resonance is similar to magnetic induction, as it uses magnetic coils to transmit energy. This technology uses coils that range in size depending on the power levels being transmitted. It has the ability to transmit power at distances up to ~11 inches (30cm) which can be increased with the use of resonance repeaters It also has more flexibility of placement than magnetic induction.
Energy Harvesting. There are multiple companies looking at harvesting energy that may be present in certain environments. The energy harvested may come from a variety of sources, including Solar, Kinetic and Passive RF. Passive RF harvesting refers to using antennas and devices to harvest RF that may already be present in an environment, such as Wi-Fi, mobile phones, cordless phones and other RF emitting devices.
Laser. Laser charging technology uses very short wavelengths of light to create a collimated beam that maintains its size over distance, using what is described as distributed resonance to deliver power to an optical receiver.
Our Target Markets
We categorize our target markets as transmitter markets and receiver markets.
Transmitter System Target Markets
Transmitters are devices that broadcast RF energy that can be accessed by WPN technology-enabled receivers for IoT applications. We believe our transmitter target market can be divided into three distinct applications for our technology:
● Stand-alone transmitters that are either sold independently or bundled as part of a pairing with wireless power technology-enabled receiver devices;
● Transmitters that are integrated into third party industrial, medical and enterprise devices; and
● Transmitters that can be integrated into Bridge and Wi-Fi routers to form a single device that provides both connectivity and wire-free power for a particular area.
To date we have released stand-alone transmitters in both near field and far field applications. Our plan in the future is to integrate our WPN technology in third party devices:
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Near Field Transmitters:
Because of its advantages over other forms of contact-based wireless charging, including incorporation into multiple form factors and potential compatibility with future distance transmitters, we expect transmitters using our Near Field wireless power technology to be the first wireless transmitter products on the market. These contact-based charging solutions are ideally suited for many electronic devices in both consumer and industrial markets such as wearables, IoT devices and other small electronics that require a small form factor receiver and a low-cost charging solution. They are also suitable for larger, more power-hungry devices such as smart watches and tablets. Initially these transmitters will be one-to-one (one transmitter to one receiver), with future versions being single transmitters for multiple receivers.
Far Field Transmitters:
Transmitters based on the Energous Far Field technology, which we refer to as the Wireless PowerBridge, are expected to provide low power charging for multiple devices with the capability of extending the range through the deployment of multiple Energous PowerBridge transmitters. We expect that our PowerBridge transmitter systems will have the ability to broadcast wireless power to wireless power enabled receiving devices for charging. Our PowerBridge transmitters may play a significant role in the charging of low power IoT devices– such as ESLs, RF tags, and IoT sensors.
Transmitters Integrated into Third Party Devices:
The “building block” core architecture developed for the wireless power network technology is suited to a broad range of third-party devices in both industrial and consumer markets. The flexibility of the architecture in terms of size, power, distance, and cost affords Energous customers the opportunity to match our technology with specific requirements and limitations typically found with complex integrations. For example, the wireless power transmitter technology could be integrated into a Wi-Fi router on the ceiling of a manufacturing floor or hospital ward, providing both internet connectivity and wireless power to any devices within range.
PowerBridge Transmitters:
We see the combination of wireless power routers and wireless bridges as a natural integration point and a synergistic application of both technologies. Energous PowerBridge transmitters provide the bridge to Wi-Fi, 5G and other Wide Area network technologies while also providing wireless power to in-range receiver devices. Our PowerBridge transmitters share a number of technical characteristics with Wi-Fi routers in that: (1) both devices operate in the airwaves in the unlicensed industrial, scientific and medical bands, (2) both devices owe their success to the utility and convenience they bring to the consumer, (3) both devices rely on antennas, and (4) both devices “pair” or provide hand off capabilities which allow for networks to provision large sites.
Receiver Target Markets
We believe there are many potential uses for our receiver technology, including:
● IoT devices including asset trackers, sensors, retail displays, security devices
● Smart home, medical, industrial, and other sensors
● ESLs
● Logistics and asset tracking tags and sensors
● Peripheral devices such as computer mice and keyboards
● Remote controls
● Gaming consoles and controllers
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● Hearing aids
● Rechargeable batteries
● Automotive accessories
● Smart textiles
● Wearables
● Medical devices
This list is meant to be illustrative only; we cannot guarantee that we will address any of these markets, and we may decide to address a market that is not on the list. We intend to continue to evaluate our target markets and identify new markets based on factors including (but not limited to) time-to-market, market size and growth, and the strength of our value proposition for a specific application.
Our Intellectual Property
Our most valuable asset is our intellectual property. This includes U.S. and foreign patents, patent applications and know-how. We have implemented an aggressive intellectual property strategy and are continuing to pursue patent protection for new innovations. As of February 15, 2025, the Energous IP portfolio contained over 250 issued patents organized along five (5) critical paths to implementation that we believe a competitor may have to navigate to commercialize wireless power technology. The paths are: Processing Algorithms, Antenna Designs, Transmitter and Receiver ASICs, Other Software Controls (e.g., Bluetooth â Management and Hardware (e.g., Board Layout). Further, we have additional pending patent applications in the U.S. and abroad. We intend to file for patent protection for the most valuable of our inventions, as well as for other new inventions that we expect to develop. This is a significant annual expense and we continually monitor the costs and benefits of each patent application and issued patent to ensure we pursue those that we believe are most protective for our business and expand our core value. So long as we make the business decision to continue paying maintenance and/or annuity fees, our issued patents have terms that would not expire earlier than 2030.
Government Regulation
Our wire-free charging technology involves the transmission of power using RF energy, which is subject to regulation by the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”), international regulators and may be subject to regulation by other federal, state, local and international agencies. Our technology has been tested against U.S. and international safety requirements which has consistently demonstrated that our technology is safe. We continue to work with regulatory bodies to establish processes, standards and spectrum allocation to ensure devices incorporating our technology can secure required domestic and international approvals.
As part of the regulatory approval process, devices incorporating our technology must obtain approvals under FCC Part 15 and/or FCC Part 18 in the U.S., depending on the specific application. Energous has received Part 15 and Part 18 FCC approvals our products and has received regulatory approvals from many international agencies.
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Current FCC Approvals for Energous Technology
FCC ID
Description
Grant Date
2ADNG-MLA1599
Digital Transmission System Bluetooth Accessory 2.4GHz
12/30/2014
2ADNG-MT100
Close Coupled 5.8 GHz Charger Pad
05/24/2016
2ADNG-NF130
RF Wireless Charger and Receiver 5.8 GHz
05/02/2017
2ADNG-NF130
Digital Transmission System for Bluetooth 2.4 GHz
05/02/2017
2ADNG-MS300
Wireless Charger 913 MHz
12/26/2017
2ADNG-MS300
Digital Transmission System for Bluetooth 2.4 GHz
12/26/2017
2ADNG-MS300A
WPT Client Device 913 MHz
01/05/2018
2ADNG-MS300A
Digital Transmission System WPT Client Device with BLE 2.4 GHz
01/05/2018
2ADNG-NF230
RF Wireless Charger 918 MHz
04/09/2018
2ADNG-NF230
Digital Transmission System for Bluetooth 2.4 GHz
04/09/2018
2ADNG-NF330
RF Wireless Charger 918MHz
07/29/2019
2ADNG-NF330
Digital Transmission System for Bluetooth 2.4 GHz
07/29/2019
2ADNG-MS550
RF Wireless Charger 918MHz
04/21/2020
2ADNG-MS550
Digital Transmission System for Bluetooth 2.4 GHz
04/21/2020
2ADNG-MS550
RF Wireless Charger 918MHz
09/30/2020
2ADNG-MS550
Digital Transmission System for Bluetooth 2.4 GHz
09/30/2020
2ADNG-VN15
RF Wireless Charger 918MHz
10/19/2021
2ADNG-VN15
Digital Transmission System for Bluetooth 2.4 GHz
10/19/2021
2ADNG-VN1810
RF Wireless Charger 918MHz
11/30/2021
2ADNG-VN1810
Digital Transmission System for Bluetooth 2.4 GHz
11/30/2021
2ADNG-VN25
RF Wireless Charger 918MHz
01/14/2022
2ADNG-VN25
Digital Transmission System for Bluetooth 2.4 GHz
01/14/2022
2ADNG-VN55
RF Wireless Charger 918MHz
06/02/2022
2ADNG-VN55
Digital Transmission System for Bluetooth/Zigbee 2.4 GHz
06/02/2022
2ADNG-VN1820
RF Wireless Charger 918MHz
08/10/2022
2ADNG-VN1820
Digital Transmission System for Bluetooth 2.4 GHz
08/10/2022
2ADNG-VN55
RF Wireless Charger 918MHz
11/14/2023
2ADNG-VN55
Digital Transmission System for Bluetooth/Zigbee 2.4 GHz
11/14/2023
2ADNG-YND1800
RF Wireless Charger 918MHz
08/21/2024
2ADNG-YND1800
Digital Transmission System for Bluetooth 2.4 GHz
08/21/2024
As of December 31, 2024, we announced completion of the regulatory process for our PowerBridge wireless charging technology in the U.S., Canada, Europe, India, China, UK, Korea, Australia and New Zealand, for unlimited distance wireless charging. As of February 15, 2025, products integrating this technology had received international regulatory approvals in over 110 countries.
Manufacturing
As a fabless semiconductor company in the research and development stage, we foresee our manufacturing strategy to follow an outsourced manufacturing process. We are engaged with contract manufacturing partners in the United States and internationally.
Human Capital
As of February 15, 2025, we had 26 full-time employees, 14 of whom are engineers. None of these employees are covered by a collective bargaining agreement, and we believe our relationship with our employees is good. We also employ consultants, including technical advisors, on an as-needed basis, for their technical expertise. Consultants and technical advisors provide us with expertise in electrical engineering, software development, market research and accounting.
We are committed to maintaining a workplace free from discrimination and harassment on the basis of color, race, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, religion, expression, or any other status protected by applicable law. Our management and employees are expected to exhibit and promote honest, ethical and respectful conduct in the workplace.
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Seasonality
The industrial markets in which we are involved have minimal seasonal impact. The consumer markets for the commercial products that we anticipate our technology can be used in, including the markets in which we currently have proof of concept deployments, vary in their seasonal impact. Overall, we do not foresee a material seasonal impact to our revenue at this time.
Available Information
We file annual, quarterly and current reports, proxy statements and other documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or Exchange Act. The SEC maintains an Internet website that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers, including us, that file electronically with the SEC. The public can obtain any documents that we file with the SEC at www.sec.gov. Copies of each of our filings with the SEC can also be viewed and downloaded free of charge at our website, https://ir.energous.com/, after the reports and amendments are electronically filed with or furnished to the SEC.