Resonant Link Raises $9.3 Million Investment for Wireless Charging Technology Powering the Future of Mobility

Resonant Link, developer of a transformational wireless charging technology
for medical devices and electric automotive fleets, today announced it has
raised a $9.3 million seed round, led by The Engine, the venture firm spun
out of MIT that invests in early-stage Tough Tech companies. New investor
Volta Energy Technologies also participated in the round, alongside previous
pre-seed investors including: Emerson Collective, Scout Ventures, Urban Us,
and FreshTracks Capital. The new capital will be used for strategic hiring
and to support product development and customer deployment. This growth will
accelerate Resonant Link’s mission to bring wireless power to every medical
device to eliminate drivelines and battery replacement surgeries, and to
support electrification in industrial automotive fleets through wireless
charging that delivers 24/7 uptime with smaller batteries.

Resonant Link is building best-in-class wireless chargers to power
implantable medical devices and accelerate electrification in robotics,
material handling, and electric vehicles. Its powerful multi-layer
self-resonant structure (MSRS) enables wireless chargers that are:

5-10x higher performance than is possible with existing technologies
5-10x faster charge (speed)
4x lower normalized cost
3x lighter in weight
3x smaller in size

“Energy and power have become the new vectors of competition across
industry, particularly transportation and healthcare, as consumers and
patients demand better, safer and more mobile experiences,” said Dr. Grayson
Zulauf, co-founder and CEO of Resonant Link. “Our technology isn’t just an
evolution in wireless charging; by fundamentally changing the wireless coil
geometry from two to three dimensions, we enable charging speeds equal to
and faster than wired, longer ranges, smaller chargers, and radically
reduced on-board battery sizes. This smaller battery footprint and longer
operating life results in less obtrusive medical implants and less stops and
more miles for industrial fleets.”

Resonant Link’s MSRS enables 99% efficient wireless links and supports
medical implant depths up to 6x deeper than current technology while meeting
FDA-mandated temperature limits for devices such as pacemakers,
neurostimulators, and ventricular assist devices (VADs). Tethering medical
devices with wires and accessing them to charge is either not possible or is
an unattractive and dangerous option for patients. Conventional wireless
power coils can’t fundamentally deliver the efficiency, biocompatibility,
tight integration, large gaps, and tiny size requirements. Resonant Link
solves this challenge with the MSRS coil and their power electronics
technology for 20x higher recharge rates, simpler alignment for patients,
and smaller devices – all at once.

The platform technology also offers a reliable, economical way to recharge
electric vehicles during the short stops that already exist during
operation, extending range and shrinking on-board batteries. Currently, high
upfront cost and significant vehicle downtimes for charging are slowing the
shift to electric vehicles (EV). Fleets are buying 2-3x more vehicles than
they need to accommodate downtime and batteries must be sized for 8-hour
shifts, or more. With wireless charging integrated into routes, the entire
paradigm of charging downtime is eliminated. Vehicles can run 24/7 and
batteries only need to be sized for 1 or 2 loops of the mission, making EVs
a no-brainer for fleet customers.

Resonant Link was founded in 2017 by CEO Grayson Zulauf, PhD, Electrical
Engineering, Stanford University, CTO Aaron Stein, PhD, Power Electronics,
University of Michigan, CSO Phyo Aung Kyaw PhD, Electrical Engineering,
Dartmouth, and Professor Charlie Sullivan of Dartmouth. Its growing team is
a mix of former early-stage founders, engineers, and industry veterans from
Tesla, Apple, Motiv, and Dynapower. The company is headquartered in Vermont,
has employees in Massachusetts, California, and Zurich and plans to expand
in all three locations in 2022.

Since its founding, Resonant Link has secured customers in every sector,
including six Fortune 500 companies, to power their mission-critical
applications. In the past 12 months, the company was profitable and
increased revenue by 6x year-over-year. In that time, its customer base has
doubled. Currently, seven medical partners are designing Resonant Link
wireless power into their implantable devices and 13 fleets have signed up
for an initial deployment in their industrial electric fleets (robots, lift
trucks).

“Resonant Link’s focus on medical and transportation applications shows how
vast the potential reach is for their technology,” said Orin Hoffman,
Partner at The Engine. “Mobility is becoming standard to nearly every
consumer electronic device that requires power. Resonant Link is bringing
mobility to the most essential, and most challenging, devices. I believe
they have the ability to positively impact and improve future medical
devices and transportation infrastructure.”

Resonant Link partners with the U.S. Air Force (AFWERX), U.S. Army (xTech),
Activate / Cyclotron Road, U.S. Department of Defense, the TomKat Center for
Sustainable Energy at Stanford University, National Science Foundation,
Shell NREL GCxN Gamechanger, and Dartmouth College.

ABOUT RESONANT LINK

At Resonant Link, we’re building best-in-class wireless chargers to
accelerate electrification in multi-billion-dollar markets like robotics,
material handling, and electric vehicles. Our wireless chargers are
unmatched in speed, price, weight, and size, unlocking electrification by
recharging vehicles during the short stops that already exist during
operation to extend range and shrink on-board batteries. Since our founding,
we’ve landed leading customers in every sector (including 6 Fortune 500
companies) to power their mission-critical applications.

Our growing team is a mix of Ph.D. engineers, industry veterans from Tesla,
Apple, Motiv, and Dynapower, and ex-founders and early-stage leaders, all
coming together to rethink the charging paradigm. Resonant Link is based in
Vermont, Massachusetts, and California and our investors & partners include
the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, Cyclotron Road,
Activate.org, Stanford, Dartmouth, Urban Us, Scout Ventures and others.

ABOUT THE ENGINE

The Engine is a Cambridge, MA-based venture capital firm. It was conceived
and created by MIT in 2016 to address the unmet need for sustained support
for startups with the potential to solve complex, existential challenges and
make a material, positive impact on society. The Engine provides access to
long-term capital, knowledge, connections, as well as the infrastructure
these Tough Tech companies need to thrive. For more information, visit
www.engine.xyz