Member Article

Interview: Dan Bladen on how Chargifi is solving our mobile power problem

The president of the European Union, Jean Claude Juncker, recently unveiled proposals for a Europe-wide free Wi-Fi network, covering the ‘main centres of public life’ by 2020 with a further commitment to roll out 5G mobile connectivity by 2025.

While the benefits of blanket internet coverage and continent-wide super fast mobile connectivity are undeniable, the scheme both gestures towards a wider trend at the same time that it does nothing to remedy it.

That problem is power.

Slumming along from charge to charge is a common everyday occurrence for anyone with a smartphone (a sizeable 72% of the UK’s adult population at last count) and our out of home power problem is only going to get worse as our devices become more complex.

At least that’s what Dan Bladen thinks, which is why he founded Chargifi back in 2012 to solve what he dubs as the ‘universal pain point’ of power.

Utilising wireless charging technology, the London-based tech firm gives coffee shops, cafes, restaurants, hotels and other leisure venues the opportunity to offer a charging service to their customers while gaining valuable customer insight at the same time.

The idea for the business came about when Bladen and his wife were travelling the world a few years ago and realised that, while much of their movement was based on where they could get a decent Wi-Fi connection, they still constantly struggled to keep their devices charged.

As Bladen explained: “When we got back, my friend, founder and non-executive director Charlie Cannell and I got together to address the issue and talk about how we might be able to give venues like coffee shops, bars, hotels and airports the ability to offer customers a wireless charging service while gaining valuable insight into their customer’s behaviour.”

Following early trials at Carnaby Street juice bar Moosh and early investment from Streetcar entrepreneur Brett Akker, Chargifi has now rolled out to a number of international markets, including Hong Kong, Singapore and India, and received significant backing from Intel last year.

It is perhaps this pairing with Intel that points towards Chargifi’s bright future.

As Dan tells it, ‘power as a utility is not smart’ and this assertion is backed up by the fact that the technology for wireless charging has still not found widespread adoption amongst manufacturers and technology firms, particularly as tech firms have struggled to settle upon a unified standard.

Currently, Chargifi’s magnetic resonance charging network relies on a dongle and app combination to allow users to give their devices a power boost, but the technology is primed and ready to work with the next generation of wireless charging-enabled devices which the likes of Intel are currently developing.

It is in this context that the tech firm’s vision transcends simply being an out of home charging provider and begins to enter the realm of networked power that draws on the Internet of Things (IoT) and Software as a Service (SaaS).

“Large businesses can benefit from what we call ‘estates’ or ‘fleets’ of transmitters,” said Bladen. “For example, if you’re in a large hotel, there may be up to 1500 wireless transmitters per hotel which are pretty hard to fix if anything goes wrong.

“If you’re using Chargifi’s wireless service, we can fix them remotely and detect any issues in advance to fix them before they go wrong.”

The ability to fix devices remotely using its IoT enterprise platform, and provide businesses with analytics and data on their customers has helped to turbocharge the firm’s global reach, not to mention that its software-first approach means its network can be rapidly rolled out across whole ‘estates’.

With Intel’s stamp of approval combined with the impending boom in smartphone usage in the developed world, it might just be that Chargifi’s logo becomes as ubiquitous, both at home and abroad, as the inescapable ‘Wi-Fi certified’ trademark that emblazons most of the world’s cafes, restaurants and hotels.

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