Image: SunCubes
Italy-based startup SunCubes has raised €1.1 million ($1.3 million) in seed funding to advance its long-range wireless charging solution for drones.
SunCubes, which describes itself as “aiming to revolutionise energy transmission”, has announced the closing of its €1.1 million ($1.3 million) seed funding round intended to enable the development of a minimum viable product of what should be a groundbreaking laser-based in-flight charging system for drones.
The system, developed by SunCubes, is based on laser technology, with a transmitter converting electrical energy into a laser beam, which is then reconverted into electricity through a receiver installed on the drone.
Designed to be plug and play and compatible with the most common drones, the system is intended to solve the problem of limited flight autonomy by eliminating the restrictions imposed by physical connectors and paving the way for longer flights.
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Possible applications include extended urban drone deliveries, continuous industrial monitoring and, probably further in the future, power delivery in space, although unlikely for beaming of space-based solar to Earth.
“With this funding, SunCubes takes a decisive step toward creating a technology that will radically change the way we think about drone autonomy and their future applications,” promises Alberto Chiozzi, CEO of SunCubes.
The operation was jointly led by RoboIT, a national technology transfer hub for robotics established in Italy on the initiative of CDP Venture Capital and Pariter Partners, and CrossConnect, a programme of CDP Venture Capital’s National Accelerator Network, with co-investors the US-based venture capital investor Plug and Play Tech Centre and Italy’s innovation non-profit ELIS.
SunCubes, founded by a team of graduates from the Politecnico di Milano and incubated at the Politecnico’s PoliHub innovation park also is being supported by the ESA BIC Milan accelerator programme.
In addition to the mobile implementation for drones, named ‘SunCubes Lucy’, SunCubes’s power beaming solution is equally applicable to stationary applications. The ‘SunCubes Light’ solution is designed to provide wireless power for static devices such as monitoring sensors and security cameras to ensure continuous operation without the need for manual battery replacement, even in remote or difficult-to-access environments.
In October 2024, SunCubes recorded power delivery from its laser system over a distance of 600m at Leonardo’s Venegono facility.
