Pulsiv appoints Darrel Kingham as CEO and completes £1.5 million fundraising
Pulsiv has strengthened its management team and completed a £1.5 million funding round as part of moves to accelerate development, prepare for scale up and deploy its unique power conversion technology. It has appointed former Arm Limited (“Arm”) and Aixtron Limited executive Darrel Kingham as Chief Executive Officer and Associate Professor Zaki Ahmed as Chief Strategy Officer. Tim Moore, Executive Vice President of Shark Robotics, will join the Pulsiv Board of Directors as a non-executive director on 1st June 2021. The Company has also completed a second tranche of its equity funding round, raising a further £620,000, to bring the total raised to £1.5 million. To reflect the much wider range of potential applications for the technology, the Company has changed its name from Pulsiv Solar to Pulsiv.
With a mission to “Make the most efficient use of electricity wherever it is converted”, Pulsiv will use the money to deliver unique solutions with a lasting economic and environmental impact. A trend towards global sustainability is driving the need for smarter and more energy-efficient products. Consumers also expect battery powered equipment to last longer on a single charge, faster battery charging and domestic appliances that cost less to run. Pulsiv has shown that all of this can be achieved in smaller, lighter and more cost-effective designs by exploiting some fundamentally new power conversion techniques. Pulsiv’s technology can be used in any mains-powered product, battery chargers, lighting applications, electric vehicles, portable power tools and DC motors. The Company is also working with Bosch on a new microinverter to generate maximum power from photovoltaic solar cells in a more economical way.
An electronic engineer by training, Darrel has extensive experience in developing technology, growing corporate business units and leading successful sales operations. Darrel’s most recent role was as General Manager for Aixtron, a German-based provider of deposition equipment to semiconductor manufacturers. In this role, he was responsible for the business unit focused on Graphene and carbon nanomaterials technology. Before Aixtron, Darrel held a variety of senior roles for semiconductor IP group Arm for more than 10 years, including General Manager of Arm China, VP Licensing Operations and VP European sales. He has a first-class degree in electronic engineering from the University of Central England in Birmingham. He joins Pulsiv at a stage when the Company has proven technology, significant industry traction and the necessary funds to accelerate growth. As Pulsiv Chief Executive, Darrel will be responsible for overseeing the next stage of the Company’s evolution.
Dr Zaki Ahmed, who developed Pulsiv’s technology, has left his post at the University of Plymouth, where he was Associate Professor of Information Technology, to work full time for the Company.
Tim has extensive experience at senior levels with electrical groups. Before joining household electronics group SharkNinja, he was CTO, for premium haircare consumer goods group GHD.
Pulsiv’s technology has very broad applicability because it improves the efficiency with which alternating current, AC, is converted into direct current, DC, and vice versa. Such power conversion is a ubiquitous requirement in electrical products. While electricity supply is AC, the electronics in most household goods operate using DC at a range of different voltages; conversely, in power generation, photovoltaic solar cells generate DC electricity which needs to be converted into AC to be exported onto the grid or used in the home.
The Company is a spin out from the University of Plymouth.
I’m excited by the opportunity to deploy another British innovation on a global scale. Pulsiv’s technology has shown impressive results and we’re ready to push the boundaries of product design with pioneering brands. Pulsiv Chief Executive Officer Darrel Kingham
Pulsiv’s technology has the potential to make a real difference across a very wide range of electrical applications through improving power output and the efficiency of electricity conversion leading to reduced bills and better products. I believe this technology will become ubiquitous and hence am delighted to be helping the Company with the next stages of its development. Dr Tim Moore, ex-CTO ghd; Executive Vice President, Shark Robotics, part of Shark Ninja; Pulsiv non-executive director from 1 June 2021
We are delighted to have attracted someone of Darrel’s calibre as Chief Executive of Pulsiv. The Company is now at an important stage and we believe Darrel is the right person to take it forward through the next phase of its development. Tim’s deep understanding of the electronics industry will also prove invaluable to the Company as it develops. Frontier IP Chief Executive Officer Neil Crabb
