Why we invested in Willo

TLDR

• byFounders backs Willo, a Finnish startup that delivers wireless power to moving, rotating devices with no alignment required.

Key Takeaways

• Willo’s technology creates a field of power rather than a beam, letting devices receive energy while moving or rotating 360 degrees on all three axes.
• Existing wireless power approaches fail at motion: inductive systems (Qi/MagSafe) require precise alignment; RF beaming loses the target the moment a device rotates.
• The core IP originates from Aalto University research led by Dr. Nam Ha-Van; the technology was publicly demonstrated at CES 2026.
• The founding and engineering team includes hardware executives from Microsoft, Nokia, and Oura, covering design, manufacturing, and supply chain.
• Batteries account for 30-50% of smartphone weight; warehouse robots lose productive time routing around charging stations – constraints Willo’s approach directly targets.

Why It Matters

• True orientation-independent wireless power removes a hard physical constraint that shapes factory layouts, robot duty cycles, and device form factors.
• Industrial automation and warehouse robotics are the stated near-term targets; the team cites spatial computing and medical devices as subsequent application areas.
• The combination of post-doctoral research staff and proven hardware-at-scale operators (Oura supply chain, Microsoft hardware design) is structurally rare for a deep-tech seed-stage company.

byFounders · 2026-04-10 · Read the original