[Tokyo, Japan]: November 9, 2021. On October 19th Tokyo-based PJP Eye LTD.’s sustainable carbon battery won first place and $500,000 in funding from venture capital investor Tim Draper in the Draper-Aladdin Startup competition at GITEX 2021 in Dubai. A premier annual consumer computer and electronics trade show, exhibition, and conference held in the Dubai World Trade Centre, GITEX had 700 startups vying for prizes in the overall Supernova Challenge 2021, with PJP Eye one of only 13 to emerge victoriously.
“We’re thrilled to receive this high-profile recognition of our plant-based, sustainable Cambrian™ battery,” says PJP Eye CEO Hiroaki Nishina. “In addition to the funding, we’ve also made new connections and gained access to the Middle East renewable energy market[MOU1] .”
The environmentally friendly Cambrian™ power cell incorporates a negative electrode made of carbon derived from cotton or biowaste, is recyclable, lasts more than 20 years, charges 10 times faster, and won’t burst or explode. Unlike standard batteries, it uses no petroleum products, and none of the rare metals such as cobalt and nickel that conventional lithium-ion power cells do. Extracting those rare metals has a disturbingly high human and environmental cost.
The battery will also shrink the expanses known as “energy deserts” where power is lacking. “Many people in the world, especially children, live without electricity and access to education and medical care,” says PJP Eye CEO Hiroaki Nishina. “Electric power is an essential lifeline. Our green technology aim is to provide every person on the planet with access to essential services and the freedom of portable power.”
The British Embassy in Tokyo presented PJP Eye with the Tech Rocketship Award in March 2020, which later inspired the Scottish government to nominate the company for the Net Zero Technology Centre’s Clean Energy Start-Up pitch battle. The Net Zero award acknowledges global startups offering fresh technology solutions that can accelerate the transition to a net zero energy society. PJP Eye beat out all but one of its 29 challengers at the Net Zero final round at COP26 in Glasgow on November 2.
About PJP Eye Ltd.
Established in 2017 by tech entrepreneur Hiroaki Nishina, PJP Eye leveraged research performed at Kyushu University’s R&D Center to prepare the Cambrian™ battery for mass commercial use. The company succeeded in that venture, producing a pouch-type power cell in 2018 and prepping it for installation in products such as power-assisted bicycles, e-scooters and drones from 2019. Worldwide sales began via crowdfunding. PJP Eye is gearing up to shift most of its operations and R&D to the West. That includes a UK subsidiary created with UK government support and collaborating with Binghamton University in New York and Warwick University and the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre in the UK.
The venture’s immediate goal is to provide sustainable solutions using this technology to companies in fields like transportation and energy storage for satellites, boats, and other vehicles. The ultimate goal is to contribute to the world at large by helping eliminate differences in access to electricity. Even without power lines, technologies like solar panels and power banks mean that power can be made available anywhere for crucial purposes such as medicine, education, and agriculture.
[MOU1]Can you give me details about the “Meet the Drapers” show and PJP Eye’s participation?