If you haven’t heard by now, we have an unlimited power source hanging in our sky. That flaming orange ball of fire has been powering homes for quite some time now, but the barrier to entry for solar power still remains high.

Why is that? Shouldn’t we be encouraged to use more free energy? There’s got to be more things to power with solar energy than just our homes, right?

There certainly is -- and now you can get them.

Meet SolAps, designer of green tech for everyday users. We create cool, fresh, useful products that take advantage of solar energy and put them in the hands of people like you.

The complete solution for today’s mobile user: protective, stylish, extended battery life, and environmentally friendly. Plus, with the Chargebot app, you can quickly get a snapshot of your solar power usage and management.

SolAps is increasing the adoption of renewable energy by creating solar products that are easy and enjoyable to use and improve the functionality of the mobile apps and electronics that define our world today. SolAps: Smart solar power for the 21st century.

The capabilities of smartphones is going through the stratosphere, but battery technology hasn’t evolved correspondingly quick enough to support all that phone usage.

So instead of waiting for batteries to catch up, why not use a free energy source: the sun?

Traditionally, solar technology has been reserved for those with big wallets; it was hard for the general consumer to adopt green technology, even if they wanted to.

At SolAps, we thought it was about time to do something about this unnecessary barrier. By bringing green tech to the everyday consumer, we solve those annoying battery life problems in an elegant, stylish, and environmentally friendly way.

Chargebot is a protective smartphone sleeve that fits both Galaxy and iPhones. Designed by luxury accessories designer Lindsey Tait, Chargebot provides a luxurious and sleek look while also harnessing the power of the sun.
 

Built into the sleeve are our flexible, durable, and highly efficiency micro solar panels. Compared to other makers of micro solar panels, very few are as thin and efficient as ours. If you need to charge your phone even quicker, simply flip open the back flap to reveal a second solar panel. Those panels will store energy and transfer it to your phone’s battery whenever you need it.

Then there’s the corresponding Chargebot app. Use it to monitor the battery life in your phone and the stored up power in your sleeve. No more struggling to find an outlet and charger for your dead phone.

Users can also set up notifications through the app to alert them when their sleeve’s power reserves are full or almost up. And with the Solar Signal feature, you’ll always know when you’re in a good place for charging.

Chargebot was designed to fit into everybody’s lives; connect to solar power around you as you go about your normal life.

SolAps is a University of Toledo incubator company and a member of the OneTraction accelerator.

Another launchpad incubation company in Toledo called Lucin Tech is the supplier of our solar technology. In addition to their own proprietary design enabling paper thin solar panels, we have our own patent pending on the bluetooth chip we embed in the sleeve to communicate with the app.

We sold 750 units of our first prototype and have since completed several additional rounds of prototypes.

In that time, we’ve gained the attention and interest of numerous potential partners, ranging from international marketing executives, distributors and retailers, online marketers, international telecom carriers, and solar contractors. Examples include Brightstar Corporation, Flextronics, and MTN, an African telecom company.

After finishing up our beta prototype, we’ll reconnect with Flextronics, the world's largest electronics manufacturing company, to finalize a mass production agreement. Likewise, distribution could be optimized through Brightstar, the world’s largest distributor of smartphones and smartphone accessories.

We will also formalize a partnership with a telecom company whose customers will provide invaluable feedback for our beta launch at the end of the year. Once Chargebot has successfully made its way into the market, we will diversify our product range and create more accessible products which will accelerate the adoption of solar energy.

mindmap image illustrates different products chargebot can connect to in future.

William studied electrical engineering at the University of Toledo. His education, combined with his birth and upbringing in Africa, showed him that solar energy is the key to performing important tasks for people with little to no electrical infrastructure. After a career spanning nine years as an electrical engineer and startup experience with Leevra, an online book exchange network, William started SolAps to develop products which would lower the barrier to entry for solar technology.

Naveen runs all business development efforts. He holds an electrical and communication engineering degree from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad and will graduate with an MBA in Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management from the University of Toledo in 2017.
 

A recent graduate from the University of Toledo in mechanical engineering, Hans is our tech guy. Following the successful solo build of an autonomous drone for his senior design project, Hans built the Chargebot Alpha Prototype using off-the-shelf parts.
 

A manufacturing trouble-shooter with an attention-to-detail in pursuing the mission. Our Mentor with a significant point to detail knowledge in Startup Business Planning, Budget and Forecast Planning, Intellectual Property Rights Protection, Manufacturing Benchmark with IQA, Quickview, Business Benchmarking with Profit Cents and Fiscal. 

A recent graduate of the University of Dayton with M.S. in Electrical and Communication Engineering, Hua Chen is our firmware guy. Following the successful internship with Brisk Computing LLC, he joins our team as an engineer.