One week after the Paper Battery Co. announced its partnership with a battery supplier in China, it is looking to make the move from prototyping to production.
CEO Shreefal Mehta said the five-year-old company has been testing its paper-thin PowerPatch batteries with four of the five major smartphone companies and it’s ready to move into commercialization.
Mehta could not identify the smartphone companies by name, but he believes their interest validates that Paper Batteries’ technology will improve smartphone performance.
Mehta said the company is in the position to bring in $3 million in revenue by the end of this year. And he expects to reach $10 million in revenue by the end of 2015. That’s after tapping into the U.S. and European customers the company is gaining through a new partnership with Technology with Spirit Industrial in China.
It was six years ago, when Mehta was approached by scientists Dr. Om Nalamusu, Bob Linhart and Pulickel Ajayan from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a private engineering school in Troy, NY.
Mehta was asked to develop a paper-thin battery. He was working as a professor at the school at the time.
Mehta said he would take a look. Now, he believes Paper Batteries’ ultrathin ultracapacitor technology is positioned to help re-define the way cell phones, bluetooth headsets and wireless speakers will operate and perform.
The Troy startup company currently has eight employees. Mehta said Paper Battery will need to hire engineers and technicians in the next few months. Mehta said the new-hires will be part of product assembly as the company continues to grow.
