In late 2007, OVP Venture Partners led an $8 million investment in a Boise company called M2E Power which had developed a technology to convert a person's movement (walking, running or sitting) into energy that then charged mobile devices. It was a pretty amazing concept in battery charging -- with possible implications for soldiers in battle or those folks who just wanted to charge up their cell phones while on the go.
But it turns out that the mobile device market didn't work as planned, and now M2E is looking for a buyer.
"M2E found that size and mass limitations surrounding the cell phone space were too restrictive, but that some larger form factors (a la vehicular motion) were more promising," OVP's Gerry Langeler tells TechFlash. "While the cell phone opportunity captured attention because it was easy for people to relate to it, the original focus included the larger form factors."
Last December, the company recruited Eric Apfelbach as chief executive. (He's been commuting between Wisconsin and Boise). He wasn't brought on to find a buyer, but Langeler said that he did help discover a potential acquirer. Those talks are in "active discussions," Langeler said.
Earth2Tech's Katie Fehrenbacher broke the news last night and has more details on what is going on at the company, citing a report from researcher and frequent OVP critic Krassen Dimitrov who called M2E's business idea "unworkable due to simple thermodynamic constraints."
In the report, Dimitrov -- who co-founded OVP-backed company NanoString Technologies -- said the $8 million venture round was “another example of irresponsible investment decisions amidst the hype of alternative energy."
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