This investment carries considerable risks and may lead to a loss of the entire assets invested. Projected returns cannot be guaranteed and may be lower than expected.
No more empty batteries - the team of poqit.berlin, who were awarded the EXIST start-up grant, has developed a smart wallet that uses the newest wireless charging technology. Our first product, poqit, is impossible to lose, comes in an elegant design and will make everyday life easier in the future. Simply charge the smartphone by placing it on the wallet.
We all know the situation: It's the morning and you are reading about current news on your smartphone as you wait for the bus or train to arrive, at lunchtime, you book a table at your favorite Italian restaurant using your phone and in the afternoon you check the social media apps in between all the various meetings. After work, the inevitable occurs: Your phone's battery gauge starts blinking. If you don't get to your charger quickly, your phone is going to turn itself off. We go to great lengths to avoid these situations: When we leave the house, we have to remember to pack the charger or at the very least the extra battery.
Is this really how you want to live? We don't think so and that is precisely the reason we decided to develop poqit. The smart wallet is equipped with the latest charging technology and comes in an elegant design.
With poqit, you will always have a spare battery on you, no matter where you are or what you are doing - integrated in a high-quality leather wallet. Annoying cables and the endless search for outlets are a thing of the past. If you need to charge your battery, it should be as simple as possible and it doesn't get any easier than placing your phone on your wallet - without a cable.
Poqit makes your smartphone's battery last twice as long. For Apple iPhone 6 users, for example, this means 15 hours additional call time, 5 hours more for surfing or 40 additional hours of music.
Furthermore, poqit connects with the smartphone and can, should you ever misplace it, be located with the poqit.app at any time. In addition, the user will receive a notification if poqit itself requires charging.
Safety and security are important to us. Poqit reliably protects all credit cards from accidental deletion or unnoticed skimming (RFID skimming).
As a technical accessory, poqit is associated with the "wearables" market. Experts predict that this strongly growing market will develop enormous potential. In 2015, more than 60 million devices were sold globally, putting market growth between 2014 and 2015 at a record 172%. By 2018, there should be in excess of 134 million sold devices which corresponds to total growth of approx. 380% within a period of just five years. We want to exploit this market potential and establish poqit.berlin as a brand that stands for both quality and sustainability. Following our company foundation in 2015 and the support provided by the EXIST start-up grant, we have now finalized the first prototypes. The next step will be series production of our first product for a market entry in Germany and Europe in Q4 2016.
In our digital world, smartphones have assumed an enormously important position. Hardly anyone can imagine being without their device for even the shortest time. At the same time, the increased integration of the device in everyday life can result in a major dependence. However, the insufficient battery life of current smartphones does not do justice to the frequency of use. The battery always seems to run out when we want to take an impressive photo, move an important date or just want to find the quickest route home.
We wanted to fix this problem. The most important aspect was that we wanted to avoid an additional device such as e.g. in the case of standard replacement batteries.
We came up with the idea to integrate an extra battery in one of the three essential necessities - smartphone, keys and wallet - during the daily, almost mantra-like final inspection prior to leaving the house. Right from the beginning, we considered it paramount to not add a further device to these valuable objects. It very quickly became clear that wallets, due to size, shape and use, would be the most ideal objects in which to integrate the back-up battery. And that is why we decided to develop poqit.
Our technology
Customers who opt for poqit will receive an emergency battery that enables them to significantly increase their smartphone battery life. Thanks to its integration in a wallet, users do not require an additional device and can charge their phones whenever and wherever without the need for cables. What is unique about poqit is that it does not only wirelessly charge phones but can be charged without a cable itself. To do so, simply place poqit on the included charging platform.
We use Qi technology for poqit's cable-free power transmission. "Qi" is Wireless Power Consortium's (WPC) standard - a union of more than 200 companies for the development of processes and standards in inductive wireless power transmission. The standard currently supports about 140 mobile phones and tablets - global corporations such as IKEA, LG or Samsung are members of WPC and support the continuous development and dissemination of this technology.
Customer protection is a top priority for us. For this reason, we use a special protective liner that protects magnetic cards from accidental deletion. This liner also prevents unnoticed card skimming. Wireless identification of individuals and objects (RFID) is becoming a ubiquitous global phenomenon but can also lead to unnoticed data theft or credit card skimming. poqit users need no longer worry about these dangers.
The poqit.app
The most advanced spare battery is only useful if you remember to take it with you. And that is exactly why poqit connects with the smartphone via Bluetooth. If users forget their wallets, the poqit.app will send them a notification. If the distance between poqit and smartphone is too great, users will hear a warning signal making it practically impossible to lose. The app will further inform users about the wallet's charge status. If poqit's battery starts to run low, poqit will send the user a reminder. In addition, the wallet radar will help you find poqit in even the most chaotic of rooms. And it works in both directions. If users misplace their phones, all they need to do is tap the wallet and wait for the smartphone to emit an audible signal.
The material
We love a good design! It took us a very long time to come up with the poqit design. We collaborated with various designers and dismissed many concepts at a very early stage. The initial drafts were used to test and improve our idea, and to finally choose a design that satisfies both the demands we had for a modern wallet as well as the major technical requirements.
Aside from construction and design, we were also very invested in the choice of material for poqit. After a vigorous analysis of the wallet market and a survey conducted with 350 participants from our potential target group, we decided to use leather as the outer material for poqit. As founders, we consider a considerate approach to use of natural resources to be an important aspect for sustainable business activity, which is why we chose a special partner, rhubarb Technology GmbH, as our leather supplier:
We exclusively use vegetable tanned leather for poqit. The leather is tanned with rhubarb root substances, which contain neither chrome salts nor pollutants or heavy metals. This makes the leather particularly skin-friendly and compatible. The careful tanning process gives poqit a particularly pleasant feel and makes it very durable.
The leather was awarded the ECARF Seal of Quality of the European Centre for Allergy Research Foundation and is produced in accordance with the strict guidelines set out by the International Association for the Natural Textile Industry (IVN). This means that the cattle that supply the leather are held exclusively for meat production in Germany. The tanning agent, the rhubarb root, is a raw material that grows in Germany and we can proudly announce that our leather is 100% made in Germany, due to the fact that all companies involved in the treatment process are also located in Germany.
Our business model is based on generating revenue by selling wireless back-up batteries integrated into everyday objects to end customers. Our first product is poqit, a wallet for men. We will offer additional versions of the wallet directly after poqit's market entry in Q4/2016 in order to satisfy the various needs associated with wallets for men. The main differences will be shape, construction and battery life.
In addition, we will offer accessories to coincide with the market entry such as, e.g. QI smartphone covers and so-called QI receivers which provide smartphones that do not normally support wireless charging with this additional function. These cheap accessories can already be purchased from various manufacturers on the market which is why we will only offer selected products, branded with our logo. We plan to develop further products as of 2017 in order to expand the poqit.berlin portfolio.
Initially we will rely on direct sales via our online shop as the main sales channel for our products. This will ensure direct customer contact and complete control of the sales channel, enabling us to gain as many customers as possible with the least resources. This distribution approach is also in line with current purchase behavior forecasts in Germany, which predict a further increase of online trade. While we will offer global shipping, we are primarily focusing on customers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, as well as the rest of Europe. In the short term, we will use Amazon as a distributor, and in the medium-term we intend to increasingly distribute indirectly via wholesale and retail partners.
In order to collect first-hand customer feedback, we are cooperating with the Humboldtstore as an advertising partner and initial physical stores in Berlin. The Humboldtstore mainly sells Humboldt University (Berlin) merchandise and also provides selected start-ups in the founders’ network with the opportunity to sell their products in the store. This will enable us to personally introduce and advertise poqit to the primarily international customer base. poqit will be available in the Humboldtstore as of the sales launch in Q4/2016.
We have, in many respects, put a significant distance between our company and the competitors on the back-up battery market. So far, only a handful of companies have dealt with the integration of a battery in a wallet to solve the charging problem associated with current smartphones. Furthermore, our vision is to distinguish our company from the competition with the help of 100% wireless power transmission, thus creating a product with an actual unique selling point as well as true added value. In comparison to rival products, poqit is not limited to a certain type of smartphone or a specific manufacturer. Instead, poqit can connect with almost every smartphone.
Poqit, in combination with the poqit.app, is the first extra battery on the market that is impossible to lose. We have therefore developed a solution for almost every smartphone owner who has to worry about battery life on a daily basis. Current solutions go hand in hand with significant additional expense and require the user to remember an additional device.
As the first providers of intelligent back-up batteries, integrated into a high-quality wallet, we are operating on a new market for elegant fashion combined with smart technology. We hope to continuously develop the poqit.berlin brand through consistent development of our range of products.
We have been drafting a patent specification for our products together with the renowned patent attorney firm Maikowski & Ninnemann since January 2016; the specification will be submitted to the German Patent and Trade Mark Office in the second quarter 2016. Furthermore, we enjoy European protection of our logo and its design.
We managed to win over Avnet EMG GmbH, one of the world's largest distributors for electronic components and computer products, as a partner and supplier for all hardware development concerns during the early stages. We are primarily benefiting from the company's global network and their strong expertise in the electronic components segment.
We are also collaborating with Texas Instruments (TI), one of the leading companies in wireless power transmission. TI is acting as an advisor and supplier in hardware development and supplies us with high-quality and durable components for our products.
In addition, futurebags and ronronron Development are supporting us in the development of poqit. As established leather processing and prototype construction businesses, they were able to support us in the development of the prototype and are currently helping us to move from the prototype design to series production. Both companies had already proved their knack for design and practicability in the context of various preceding cooperations. These experiences were very useful in the early development phase.
Our final partner is our material supplier rhubarb technology GmbH. The company supplies us with vegetable tanned leather for our wallets, as rhubarb leather 100% satisfies our demands for sustainable material.
Target Group
Our target group analysis is based on the SIGMA Milieus der Gesellschaft für internationale Marktforschung und Beratung mbH model. The classification takes into consideration socio-demographic segmentation variables, social situation as well as basic orientation. Consumers are assigned to various milieus according to their habits and living conditions.
poqit addresses smartphone owners who enjoy new technology and investing their money in technical innovations and products. As the first product is a classic wallet for men, we will initially be addressing technophile men with a sense for design who have a higher education degree and above-average income. This group is independent, predominantly lives in major cities and has access to extensive networks.
These characteristics primarily apply to the following three milieus: the post-modernists, the social climbers and the modern employees. In Germany alone, these milieus are made up of around 25 million people.
Short Profile - Market
Forecasts about smartphone use in Germany and around the globe prove that nowadays many people spend a large portion of their time using smartphones, and this trend will only increase in the future. However, new battery technology with which to significantly improve the device's battery life will take numerous years until it is marketable.
Wearables such as poqit can help to solve this problem. General interest in these types of wearable computer systems is increasing significantly, as evidenced by the strong increase in sales figures over the course of the last years. For example, the global sales volume for wearables has increased from 30 million (2013) to almost 60 million (2015) in the space of only a few years. Between 2014 and 2015, CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) was at a record 172%. Sales are expected to increase to 134 million by 2018.
Due to similar target groups and communication channels, active poqit marketing will initially concentrate on Germany, Austria and Switzerland; a rapid expansion of the concept within the EU is planned for Q2/2017. The number of potential customers in the target markets (see the figure below) is 145 million male customers. They live in the EU, exhibit the characteristics described earlier and use their smartphones on a daily basis. Our market potential will double once we release the poqit version for women.
The target groups exist around the world, which is why we intend to successively develop our sales.
In 2015, we received the EXIST start-up grant, an important state grant for innovative, technology-oriented start-up projects. With the help of this grant, we were able to lay the foundations for our project through implementation of the first prototypes as well as initial technical development.
Prof. Björn Scheuermann has supported our team with his technological expertise and knowledge of computer engineering, ranging from circuit concepts to protocol design in communication systems, for more than a year now. In the context of the EXIST start-up grant, he also acts as a mentor for our project. In the past, Prof. Scheuermann has already supported two successful EXIST projects and is therefore perfectly suited to help us with all our founding questions.
As an EXIST project, we are also in close contact with the Humboldt University's founding service, the so-called Humboldt Innovation (HI). The experienced HI team advises us mainly in the segments business development and business model development.
After receiving the EXIST start-up grant in July 2015, we were able to finally concentrate full-time on the development of the prototype. First successful functional tests were conducted in December 2015. In early 2016, we began optimizing our board design with the new cooperation partner Avnet in order to gain more space for a larger battery. The first complete leather poqit prototype was finalized in March 2016.
We are currently working on moving from the prototypical design to a product that is ready for series production. We intend to finalize a first test series in August 2016. At the same time, we are building our online shop and will place our product in the Humboldtstore in Berlin for presentation purposes. Series production of poqit is to commence in October 2016.
We will use the capital invested by the Companists to launch series production of poqit and to implement the necessary marketing measures for a successful product launch. To this end, we will also expand the sales team.
However, additional capital is crucial to launch series production. This enables us to increase production volume and the marketing budget right from the beginning, enabling a more rapid market penetration and increased brand awareness.
Investment Level 1: €100,000
- Hire one full-time sales employee
- Invest in product development
- Increase marketing budget for additional marketing measures, especially development of advertising activities in online channels
Investment Level 2: €200,000
In addition to investment level 1, we plan to:
- Increase pilot series by an additional 50 units
- Hire one additional marketing PR employee to develop marketing measures in the most important European target markets as early as possible
Investment Level 3: €300,000
In addition to investment levels 1 & 2, we plan to:
- Increase the size of the development team in order to implement the market entry of the women's version ahead of schedule
- Significantly increase the marketing budget in order to further increase awareness of poqit
Investment Level 4: €400,000
In addition to investment levels 1 to 3, we plan to:
- Hire additional sales employees in order to include retailers for the market entry
- Further increase the marketing budget and expand our marketing activities
poqit.berlin UG (haftungsbeschränkt)
Wegedornstr. 32
12524 Berlin
Germany
Phone: +49-30-209346615
Email: investor-relations@poqit.berlin
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