Finnish Deeptech Startup Willo Raises €2.9M to Wirelessly Power the Future

In a breakthrough that could untether the world’s devices from the tyranny of charging cables, Helsinki-based deeptech company Willo has secured €2.9 million in Pre-Seed funding to accelerate development of its revolutionary wireless power system.

The investment round, led by Nordic venture capital firm byFounders with participation from Interface Capital, Unruly Capital, and Wave Ventures, also attracted an impressive roster of angel investors including Andreas Klinger (Co-initiator of EU Inc & former CTO of Product Hunt), Niccolò Perra (Co-founder of Pleo), Vincent Ho-Tin-Hoe (CPO at Wolt), Urho Konttori (Co-founder & CEO of Varjo), and Sune Alstrup (Founder of The Eye Tribe, acquired by Meta).

The Problem That’s Been Hiding in Plain Sight

While wireless charging exists today, it comes with frustrating limitations. Most systems require precise alignment between charging pad and device, making them impractical for anything that moves, rotates, or operates in dynamic environments. This constraint has kept wireless power confined to coffee tables and nightstands, far from its revolutionary potential.

Willo’s technology shatters these limitations by maintaining power delivery even as devices move and rotate through space—a capability that could transform everything from consumer electronics to industrial automation.

“Wireless power is one of the last unsolved infrastructure layers in autonomy,” explains Harri Santamala, Willo’s co-founder and CEO. “Until power can be delivered without cables or manual charging, robots and devices will remain operationally constrained. Willo is working to remove that barrier.”

From Hackathon Serendipity to Deep Tech Pioneers

The company’s origin story reads like a Silicon Valley screenplay. Harri Santamala, Dr. Nam Ha-Van, and Marko Voutilainen met at a hackathon during Slush, Helsinki’s renowned startup conference. What began as a chance encounter quickly evolved into a partnership built on mutual respect and complementary expertise.

“My CTO co-founder is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met,” Voutilainen shares enthusiastically. “Not saying that because you’re recording—I genuinely believe he’s our generation’s Einstein. What I respect most is someone who is incredibly smart in a deep, vertical way and also kind. There’s no arrogance. No ‘I’m better than you.'”

This foundation of trust and intellectual humility has proven crucial as the team tackles one of technology’s most persistent challenges.

A Decade of Research, Now Ready for Prime Time

The core technology builds on more than ten years of wireless power research led by Dr. Nam Ha-Van. After earning his PhD in South Korea, he returned as a postdoctoral researcher focused specifically on wireless power transfer—laying the groundwork for what would become Willo’s breakthrough system.

The company’s ambition is nothing short of transformative: creating a world without cables across consumer devices, industrial systems, manufacturing, drones, and virtually any electrically powered hardware. This isn’t incremental improvement; it’s infrastructure-level change.

CES 2026: The World Takes Notice

Willo first demonstrated its technology publicly at CES 2026, where the system won CNET Group’s prestigious Best of CES 2026 Awards. The reaction from industry executives was immediate and visceral.

“When executives see it, their jaws drop,” Voutilainen recounts. “The reaction is always: ‘How did you do this?'”

The company has already attracted inbound interest from some of the world’s largest corporations—many of whom don’t yet have specific use cases but recognize the technology’s transformative potential. “Many don’t even have use cases yet—they just want to understand the tech,” Voutilainen notes.

Protecting Innovation in a Competitive Landscape

While other research teams are exploring similar territory, Willo has successfully transitioned the technology out of the lab—a critical distinction. The company protects its intellectual property through a sophisticated combination of patents and tightly guarded trade secrets.

“Patents are public—people can reverse engineer them to some degree,” Voutilainen explains. “Trade secrets are like the Coca-Cola recipe. Only a handful of people know them, and they’re not written down digitally.”

Each engineering breakthrough is added to what Willo calls an “onion strategy”: a core layer of foundational patents surrounded by successive protective layers. “Every time we solve a new challenge, we patent it. Over time, you build layers around the core technology. It’s similar to how smartphones evolved—even swipe gestures became patent surfaces.”

From Concept to Commercial Reality

While Willo has yet to announce commercial partnerships, the early flood of interest has forced the founders to become disciplined about focus. “Founders have to separate signals from noise,” Voutilainen emphasizes. “Some companies just want to peek under the hood. Others have real problems we can solve—and you figure that out quickly once you start talking.”

The commercial model will vary significantly by industry. “This technology is extremely horizontal,” Voutilainen explains. “Some markets will involve licensing, some hardware, some OEM integration. We won’t build our own phones—OEMs will embed receivers. Industrial verticals may be contract-based. We want to enable other companies, not hoard the tech.”

The Sustainability Angle: Smaller Batteries, Bigger Impact

Willo’s technology could have profound sustainability implications. Many devices today carry oversized batteries to survive off-grid conditions; wireless power effectively brings them back onto the grid. This means fewer minerals mined, smaller batteries manufactured, and reduced electronic waste.

“That has sustainability implications—fewer minerals, smaller batteries,” Voutilainen notes, highlighting how the technology could contribute to more environmentally responsible electronics.

The Robotics Revolution: Eliminating Downtime

Willo is initially focusing on autonomous robotics, where the technology’s impact could be most immediate. Today’s robots are constrained by charging downtime—they must dock and pause work to recharge. Willo’s system is designed to eliminate that interruption entirely.

The implications extend beyond convenience. Continuous operation means greater productivity, reduced infrastructure costs, and the ability to deploy robots in environments previously considered impractical due to charging constraints.

Lightning-Fast Fundraising in a Skeptical Market

The fundraising process moved remarkably quickly, especially in today’s cautious investment climate. “It was surprisingly fast,” Voutilainen recalls. “Once investors saw the demo, momentum accelerated. Term sheets came within weeks.”

He believes the speed reflects growing investor appetite to back European category leaders. “VCs move quickly when they believe in something. There’s a strong appetite to build European champions. We want to help define a new global category from Europe.”

Magnus Hambleton, Partner at byFounders, underscores the investment thesis: “Willo is creating a new way to transfer power over the last meter, which removes one of the major constraints for all modern infrastructure. They are pairing deep technical work with universally applicable hardware execution that very few teams in Europe can pull off.”

The Road Ahead

Willo is headquartered in Finland and operates across Europe, the United States, and Japan. The new funding will accelerate the development of its wireless power system, moving from breakthrough demonstrations to real-world engineering and commercialization.

The company’s immediate focus is on building the technical foundation and early reference system that partners can begin evaluating and integrating. While the journey from lab to market remains challenging, Willo has already achieved what many thought impossible: wireless power that works even as devices move and rotate.

In a world increasingly dependent on battery-powered devices, Willo’s technology could finally deliver on the promise of true wireless power—freeing our devices from cables and our imagination from the constraints of traditional charging.

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