IFA International 2019 Review Edition

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LANCEY ENERGY STORAGE
Lancey Energy Storage made their IFA
debut in 2019, bringing the first smart,
connected, battery-powered cleanenergy
heater to the “Edge of Innovation”
think tank, IFA NEXT. Set with the aim
of “democratising” energy storage with
a smart radiator that embeds a lithium
battery and an energy management
system that feeds in power from solar PV
cells in the home, for example, or off-peak
green energy from the grid.
Raphaël Meyer, CEO and founder, Lancey
& Marie Poulle, Director of Marketing and
Communication, Lancey
And according to Lancey CEO and
founder Raphaël Meyer, heating emits
more greenhouse gases than transport
in Europe, making the Lancey battery
heater a potentially integral part of the
transition to clean energy.
Germany and the UK, leading adopters
of renewable energy, offer key growth
potential for Lancey, hence the
company’s presence at IFA, Meyer told
IFA International. “We’re very satisfied,”
he said at the show alongside Marie
Poulle, Lancey’s Director of Marketing
and Communication. “We have met with
distributors, suppliers, manufacturers,
and journalists,” Meyer added, saying he
hopes to consolidate these contacts in
the coming weeks. The Grenoble-based
French startup also noted the significance
of the “consumer-oriented” nature of the
IFA show
Holland-based DesignNest is a onestop
platform for designers to launch
their products in stores worldwide. It
helps to fund, engineer, manufacture,
market and distribute innovative
tech - and fight copycats. An affiliate
of the Allocacoc tech gadget brand
already established at IFA for three
years, DesignNest debuted its
coinnovations among upcoming
brands at IFA Next in 2019.
Among the fruits of its “world’s
first and only end-to-end product
design platform” is a coin-operated
high-design lamp conceived by a
Colombian designer that is pitched
at children. “We helped him from the
beginning making the product and
developing the pricing strategy to
producing the product and now we
are here selling it,” said Jose Genoves,
Product Manager at DesignNest.
DESIGN NEST:
END-TO-END PRODUCT DESIGN
He told IFA International that IFA
NEXT had been an opportunity
to meet with design associations
from several countries and to
initiate collaborations with design
institutions like the Technical
University of Berlin. DesignNest
has also been able to offer startups
with existing products at IFA NEXT
help with sales and distribution. “We
really want to make design universal
and affordable for everybody,” said
Genoves
Jose Genoves
Product Manager, DesignNest
NEXT-GEN BLOCKCHAIN
FROM PUNDI X
Singaporean startup Pundi X
debuted at IFA with a showcase of
next generation blockchain devices
and the response was positive. “We
have made some good connections
with software companies, phone
companies and distributors,” Peko
Wan, Pundi X Vice-President, told
IFA International about interest in
its unique point-of-sale device, the
XPOS, that seamlessly facilitates
transactions with crypto-currencies
across borders, and the BOB
blockchain smartphone.
Peko Wan
Vice-President, Pundi X
But on the whole, the emerging and
relatively untried technology meant
that many IFA visitors still had “to
be educated about blockchain”, said
Wan.
According to Wa, several potential
clients drove hours across Europe
for the rare chance to see the
leading edge blockchain devices in
action. “We even had a buyer who
came to our booth and asked what
is this, I want to buy it now,” Wan
said. The fact that the blockchain
phone - which ensures secure and
decentralised data transmission -
and XPOS devices could be tested by
IFA visitors for the first time helped
take some of the mystery out of the
upcoming “crypto” technology which,
judging by the success of Bitcoin, has
massive growth potential
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