Startups Pioneer Battery‑Free IoT with Energy Harvesting

More and more energy‑harvesting startups are stepping in to supply power for the growing fleet of IoT sensors.

These companies are building tiny power‑scavenging solutions that draw energy from ambient sources such as radio waves, Wi‑Fi, sunlight, heat gradients, and vibration. Their goal: replace the need for traditional batteries in thousands of industrial and consumer devices.

Wireless power has long been a visionary idea—Nikola Tesla first explored the possibility of transmitting electricity through the air in the late 1800s. Tesla’s 52‑foot Magnifying Transmitter in Colorado Springs sent 130‑foot lightning arcs into the atmosphere, and his Wardenclyffe Tower on Long Island was intended to become the world’s first wireless power grid. The project was abandoned in 1906 after funding fell through, and the tower was dismantled in 1917. The dream remained a distant fantasy until the 21st century, when the scale of the problem changed: today we only need to deliver microwatts to keep sensors alive.

While Tesla’s vision was to broadcast free electricity worldwide, contemporary startups are delivering modest amounts of power over very short distances—just enough to keep a sensor on its job without a battery.

Battery‑Free Startups Leading the Charge

Everactive Inc. stands out as a leader, having raised over $114 million since its launch in 2012. The company’s flagship product, the EverSensor, harvests energy from indoor and outdoor light, thermal gradients, radio frequencies, and vibration. A recent Series C round added $50 million, boosted by $16 million in strategic investment from 3M and Ericsson on July 29, 2021. The EverSensor’s latest chip offers non‑line‑of‑sight wireless communication up to 250 meters (820 feet)—roughly three football fields—making it ideal for industrial IoT (IIoT) deployments. Everactive claims a sensor can be installed on a steam trap in five minutes, and a single gateway can support 1,000 such sensors simultaneously.

e‑peas S.A., based in Belgium, provides a range of silicon chips that harvest power from sunlight, indoor lighting, heat, vibration, and several RF bands (868 MHz, 915 MHz, 2.4 GHz, etc.). With $13.8 million in funding, the company partners with SODAQ, which has used e‑peas’s AEM10941 chip in a solar‑powered IoT asset tracker.

Nowi Energy of the Netherlands has secured €10.5 million in venture capital from Disruptive Technology Ventures. Its NH2 power‑management IC has been integrated with Huawei’s HiSilicon NB‑IoT solution and works with Murata, Nordic Semiconductor, and other LPWA platforms such as LoRaWAN, SigFox, LTE‑M, and NB‑IoT. The chip is one of the smallest energy‑harvesting solutions available and is used in industrial sensors, electronic shelf labels, and even TV remote controls. While it can harvest from light or vibration, it does not combine both sources simultaneously.

Other firms—8Power, Quester, Wiliot—are also raising capital despite the lingering impact of the COVID‑19 pandemic. The emerging trend of battery‑free devices promises significant cost savings and environmental benefits. For instance, Everactive estimates that deploying 10,000 battery‑powered sensors across a plant could require 2,000 battery replacements annually. Eliminating those batteries would cut maintenance labor and reduce the 3 billion batteries discarded each year in the U.S. alone.

Early Stages, Big Potential

We are still in the nascent phase of energy harvesting for IoT. Solar‑powered sensors will not solve the broader energy crisis or halt climate change, but they represent a tangible first step toward greener, more sustainable industrial operations. By removing the need for batteries, companies can lower operational costs, reduce downtime, and lessen the environmental footprint of their sensor networks.

>> This article was originally published on our sister site, EE Times.