SXSW Startups: TransferFi
The Forrest Four-Cast: February 13, 2019
Fifty diverse startups will aim to impress a panel of judges and a live audience with their skills, creativity and innovation at SXSW Pitch Presented by Cyndx. Winners in 10 categories will be announced at the Pitch Award Ceremony at 6:30 pm Sunday, March 10, at the Hilton Austin.
A finalist in the Enterprise and Smart Data category, which will pitch at 12:30 pm Saturday, March 9, TransferFi is creating the world’s first long-range, safe, and efficient Wireless Power Network (WPN). It will be used to power Industrial IoT sensors to reduce wiring complexity and to high-power applications that will provide easy access to primary sources of energy such as remote and offshore renewable. All this is done through patented signal optimization and beamforming algorithms that will extend the range of Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) to more than 100 meters. TFi is revolutionizing the way we access power.
Co-founder, CEO Aashish Mehta offered more insight into the company.
What is your competitive advantage?
Our patented signal optimization that’s designed specifically for power and beamforming technology and makes us 100 times more efficient than the rest of the world.
What are your goals for TransferFi in 2019?
Six pilot deployments followed by the first product ion run by the end of the year.
Walk us through the deployment process of the TFi WPN.
The TFi WPN platform is very similar to wireless routers. A typical user will install a transmitter (TFi WPN TX), which will be plugged in or battery operated and mount a maximum of 32 receivers (TFi WPN RX) anywhere within a 25-meter radius from the TFi WPN TX. They’ll switch the system on and the TFi WPN TX will automatically calibrate and start delivering power to all the TFI WPN RX modules around the facility. That’s all that’s required to run the wireless power network. Users are able to plug in three sensors to each TFi WPN RX module. We have introduced a new receiver module (TFi Sense) that has inbuilt sensors such as temperature, pressure, humidity and vibration (3 — axis accelerometer).
TransferFi is currently based in Singapore. Tell us about the startup ecosystem there.
The Singapore government is strongly supporting tech startups with established grant schemes and investment entities/partnerships that are specifically put together to make it easier for founders to develop a product and grow as a company. There are strong clusters of startups within subsidized industrial complexes such as the Launchpad at one north. This has created a natural ecosystem of technology startups, investors, and services.
Could you give us some financial estimates on how much a city-state such as Singapore would save by forgoing wiring and installation?Singapore would save more than 50 percent of cabling and installation cost for any sensor deployment. On average for current IoT systems, about 60 percent of the cost goes into cabling and installation.
What remote economic renewables do you believe maintain the most potential to revolutionize power?
It’s hard to tell, but in ASEAN we have seen a large amount of solar, hydro and wind energy being used. At the end of day, it’s all about accessibility; solar is easiest to install anywhere and hence the most accessible. High power wireless power transfer will change this concept by reducing infrastructure required to access power from remote areas.
Tell us something about your previous experience at SXSW.
I worked in Austin for four years and SXSW was pretty much the highlight of the year. I loved the event as an attendee, but it’s a dream come true to have the opportunity to actually take part and present this year.
What are you hoping to get out of attending SXSW 2019?
The aim is to create awareness for TransferFi and network with potential collaborators. Hopefully I’ll get to meet one the following: Tim Ferriss, Guy Kawasaki, Wyclef Jean, Jeff Zucker.
Please fill us in on any relevant startup experience of your team?
Together, the TransferFi Team has 20 years of experience in WPT optimization and industrial automation.
I had eight years of experience within National Instruments, consulting system level solutions and representing ASEAN as the Industrial Internet of Things and Big Analog Data expert. I am a serial innovator and started three companies previously.
Our CTO, Dr. Mohammad Reza Vedady, is a former research fellow at National University of Singapore, working on renewable energy integration in smart grids and performance optimization in Wireless Power Transfer systems. He has published 17 papers over his Ph.D. studies and postdoc.
Our Technical Advisor, Dr. Rui Zhang (Ph.D., Stanford) is an Associate Professor and Dean’s Chair in the Faculty of Engineering at NUS. He has been listed among the World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds by Thomson Reuters since 2015, with the highest citation in the field of wireless power transfer worldwide (more than 26K citations).
If your team members weren’t involved in building TransferFi, what would they be doing?
I would be focused on a social enterprise called Medarwin, developing automated outdoor laundry drying systems for the physically challenged and mosquito detection systems for countries with high rate of mosquito related deaths.
Dr. Reza would have been continuing his post-doctoral research within NUS focusing wireless power transfer optimization.
Looking at the entire tech industry, what trend is your team most excited about?
We are excited about micro grids and the 4th industrial revolution.
What do you enjoy most and least about the startup experience?
Most enjoyable would be meeting people/investors who believe and support our vision and engaging in partnerships and growing exponentially.
Least enjoyable would be the uncertainty of the fund raise and fear that the project would not be commercialized.
What has the startup experience taught you about life?
Taking a leap of faith by working with like-minded people, in failure or success, we will on move on to greater and better things. And, as Yoda says, “Do or do not, there is no try.”
Look for more interviews with other SXSW Pitch finalists in this space between now and March.
Click here to see all 50 finalists for SXSW Pitch 2019, along with the links to their interviews on Medium.
Also, if you are an entrepreneur, check out all the cool panels and presentations in the Entrepreneurship and Startups Track, which runs March 8–12 at SXSW.
Hugh Forrest serves as Chief Programming Officer at SXSW, the world’s most unique gathering of creative professionals. He also tries to write at least four paragraphs per day on Medium. These posts often cover tech-related trends; other times they focus on books, pop culture, sports and other current events.
