We are focused on building disruptive technologies for the energy transition towards a sustainable future. We have been part of developing the world’s first Solid State Circuit Breaker that is now in use within the safest electric vehicle charging infrastructure solution. We have also developed a cloud based electrical monitoring solution for ensuring uptime of critical electrical assets and reducing operating costs. Our mission is to empower our partners and customers with the adoption of technologies aiming towards Net-Zero by leveraging our engineering expertise and experience.
Tell us about yourself?
Electrical engineer with a diverse background in Power Electronics, Semiconductors, and Software. I hold a Bachelor’s, Master’s, and PhD in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Toronto. I have worked in ATI Technologies (now AMD), IBM Microelectronics, AMD, and for a number of Silicon Valley start-ups. I love technology, cars, and the application of science to improve the human condition!
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
We have had a lot of success in the past two years, so if I could go back, I would tell myself to keep at it and stay the course. However, if I could go back further, let’s say 10 years, I would tell myself to expand my network and establish professional relationships before going on to the entrepreneurial path.
What problem does your business solve?
Smart Electrical Asset Management. We provide a full stack IoT platform to continuously monitor electrically driven critical industrial assets with instantaneous measurements and automated intelligence solutions for fault detection, operations management, and predictive maintenance (simply put we provide a Fitbit for your electrical assets). Further, mass EV charging is a problem for grid stability, so the Atom Power solution utilizing the world’s first UL listed solid state circuit breaker is a major breakthrough in this field.
What is the inspiration behind your business?
My background is in consulting and fixing problems for electrical equipment. Throughout my consulting career I realized there was a lack of good electrical data which hindered simple diagnostics that can lead to simple solutions. It frustrated me that many times the lack of this information would cause companies to just replace complete equipment and parts without realizing the underlying issues and thereby treating the symptom. It is, to me, an immensely wasteful and unsustainable practice. So, you can say that was the motivation behind the founding of Volta Energy. We want to provide good diagnostics and automated intelligence solutions to enable feed-forward proactive treating the root cause approach to maximize energy usage efficiency and asset lifecycle. Going forward, the transition to Net-Zero paradigm becomes a key business driver for us.
What is your magic sauce?
We are persistent, and our motto is “Rethinking the Obvious”. I have had the opportunity to hand pick my team who have expertise in different specific areas but are very complimentary and synchronous while focused on problem solving and addressing customer needs. This allows us to approach every issue from different perspectives and gives us the ability to create practical, implementable, and scalable solutions.
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
Continue to grow with a market-based approach where customer needs lead our development and strategic direction. We put our customers first and focus on creating value for them.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
In the early days, we were primarily R&D and technology focused, but not business minded enough. That translated into a lot of intellectual output without much thought into how to commercialize or monetize these efforts, and consequently, it took us awhile to get large capital injections. While this might have delayed our success a little, it has also taught us to become very lean and agile in our approach to financial sustainability and enabled us to survive, thrive, and hopefully now flourish.
How can people get involved?
If you are responsible for electrical assets, want EV infrastructure, or are thinking about sustainability objectives, we would like to hear from you at enquiry@voltaenergy.ca .