As more Canadians consider electric vehicles (EVs) for their next car, there are often questions about charging, especially if you live in an apartment or condo. The lack of accessible charging infrastructure, especially in multi-tenant buildings, is a barrier to EV ownership. How can you own an EV when the only way you can charge it is at the public charging stations? This is where Kiwi Charge comes in.
Abdel Ali, Founder and CEO of Kiwi Charge, is developing an autonomous, robotic charging solution designed to meet the needs of multi-tenant and high-density areas.
Kiwi Charge uses a self-navigating robot, similar to a Roomba, that finds and charges EVs without needing anyone to plug or unplug the car. Each EV owner is provided a charging cable that lives in their car. They simply plug one end into the charge port and let the other end hang out of the trunk, to which the robot autonomously attaches and disconnects from the vehicle after it’s charged. The system, guided by an app, ensures the entire process is seamless and user-friendly.
Working with the Centre for Integrated Transportation and Mobility
Ali’s entrepreneurial journey started when he considered purchasing an EV but found that the building where he lived didn’t have any charging infrastructure in place. Realizing that this was a common issue, he came up with a convenient and easily deployable solution- Kiwi Charge.
In 2023, when Ali had just started his venture, a peer suggested joining Innovation Factory’s Centre for Integrated Transportation and Mobility (CITM), where he could leverage mentorship and resources to help him refine his concept and grow his business.
As an accelerator program backed by the Ontario Vehicle Innovation Network (OVIN), CITM helps innovators with smart, connected and electrified transportation and infrastructure solutions to build viable and successful businesses.
Ali shares, “The team at Innovation Factory and CITM have been very advantageous to us. I didn’t expect members of the leadership team would be as accessible to us. But I had the opportunity to sit down with them and have great brainstorming sessions. In fact, they were very resourceful in providing us with many high-impact introductions like OVIN, which were highly beneficial for us.”
Through CITM, Kiwi Charge has received several strategic introductions to partners like Fyelabs, Neuronicworks, Intellectual Property Ontario (IPON), connecting the team with resources that directly impacted their growth. The team received guidance from CITM’s Innovation Advisors who helped to identify gaps in their business strategy, leverage funding opportunities, and refine their approach to scaling the business.
In 2023, Kiwi Charge participated in CITM’s Innovation Challenge, where Ali received mentorship to successfully present his micromobility solution to Parsons Corporation.
CITM’s Innovation Challenge offers transportation and mobility start-ups unique access to a dynamic network of accelerators, government agencies, academia, and private corporations, and is designed to contribute to economic growth within Ontario and Canada’s transportation and mobility sector.
The Kiwi Charge team was later selected as the winner of the challenge, resulting in potential sales opportunities with the global corporation. And that was just the first of many more wins to come.
A look into the future with Kiwi Charge
With a great solution in hand, the Kiwi Charge team is on track to achieve some major milestones.
The team has filed a provisional patent for their charging technology which is currently pending approval. Ali and his team have refined their Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and their proof of concept for the autonomous charging units. The MVP is currently being piloted at a few buildings
Collaborating with Mohawk College’s IDEAWORKS, another introduction from CITM, the Kiwi Charge team has developed and refined the software for their charging technology with the help of faculty and student expertise, moving the technology closer to market readiness. The mobile app is set to be deployed to Android and IOS users.
Not only that, Ali also shared that Kiwi Charge was selected as a recipient of the OVIN Technology Pilot Zone in collaboration with the City of Markham and the City of Vaughan. The program will enable them to pilot their technology for municipal stakeholders who could potentially turn into investors. Kiwi Charge was also the first place winner at the 2023 City of Toronto’s Small Business Forum.
Looking ahead, Ali adds, “We are currently operating in three residential buildings and have an active waitlist of communities looking to adopt Kiwi Charge. With that, we are focusing on expanding the waitlist to more locations; advancing the development and commercialization of our intellectual property, and launching our app. We’re also working with the Vector Institute on a machine learning model and exploring strategic partnerships to unlock new market opportunities.”
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