VCs put $6.2m into start-ups Aquila and JDoodle

A start-up which began as a Canberra side project and a renewable energy firm with major potential to scale up its discovery have raised about $6.2m from VC funds.

A start-up that has discovered the ability to transmit energy through the air using light beams and another founded in Canberra over a weekend 10 years ago that allows developers to code online have raised a collective $6.2m this week.

Renewable energy start-up Aquila has shown the ability to power a drone containing photovoltaic cells for between 500m to 1km by transmitting energy to it using beams of light.

The idea, called an optical energy network, has landed Aquila $3m from Blackbird Ventures after the start-up was able to develop a proof of concept with a drone that shows the ability to travel up to 1km after receiving energy via a beam.

Aquila was founded by software engineer William Jeremijenko, 22, and mechatronics engineer Nelson Smith, 32. The pair met online during a four-week engineering fellowship course at start-up accelerator Startmate.

The pair have a larger vision for the future of energy transmission, with a plan to develop the internet of energy, likening their technology to the moment when the world moved away from dial-up internet to wi-fi.

However, the start-up has its sights set on smaller targets for now, with one application being to establish a network to power a drone for surf lifesaving clubs as well as to expand the current range of flight.

Mr Jeremijenko said in future Aquila could create flight corridors in which an aircraft would be able to continuously recharge while travelling past wireless power supplies.

“You would have a corridor in which you have a network of charging stations along that corridor which allow the aircraft to continuously resupply power,” he said.

Aquila’s device which transmits energy to a photovoltaic cell.

In testing, the pair used a lighthouse module on top of a vehicle trailer that could track the drone to transmit energy. The drone’s photovoltaic receivers were pointed in the direction of the module delivering the beam, Mr Jeremijenko said.

As for the beam transmitting the energy, Mr Jeremijenko said it was invisible to the human eye as it was infra-red. But given the energy density, it was about 100 times brighter than the sun at noon.

Niki Scevak, a partner at Blackbird Ventures, said the firm believed the start-up had created a novel solution that had major potential to scale.

“Aquila offers an enchanting vision that would enable a country like Australia to become a ­renewable superpower by transporting our abundance of midday sun to service the energy needs of the evening hours of the most populous cities of the world,” Mr Scevak said.

Meanwhile, a former software developer who started an online website teaching people about code has received $3.2m from CSIRO’s investment in Main ­Sequence.

Gokul Chandrasekaran founded JDoodle, an ecosystem for programmers, over a weekend about a decade ago. Before long it began to take off, and today has revenue of about $12,000 a month and between 800,000 and 1 million monthly users.

Mr Chandrasekaran said part of the reason the platform had taken off was because of the excessive cost companies front when teaching software developers about new systems.

“Even in this AI era, software developers spend at least one month of their time just setting up and managing their software development environments – wasting around 20 per cent of any organisation’s software funding,” he said.

Main Sequence partner Mike Nicholls with JDoodle founder Gokul Chandrasekaran.

That was a conservative figure, he said, adding that he would seek to provide guides and resources on how to use multiple different development tools.

The platform saw rapid growth despite Mr Chandrasekaran having not spent any money on marketing. About 30 per cent of users came from Europe, 30 per cent were from the US and about 30 per cent were from India. Just 1 per cent of users were Australian, he said.

JDoodle would eventually roll out subscription tiers to its members and develop certifications for different tools and platforms.

“We are trying to be a one-stop shop for anything programming. We are building a programming ecosystem, which brings students, teachers, developers, recruiters and businesses together,” Mr Chandrasekaran said.

Main Sequence partner Mike Nicholls said he believed JDoodle would also help to solve some of Australia’s talent problems in the tech sector.

“It’s pretty unusual to find a business that has got that sort of volume of users that hasn’t had $10m, $20m or $30m splashed into it,” he said.

“What I loved about this business is that with it, we can actually work out where the talent is and where who’s hiring the talent. Out of up to 1 million users every month, you’ve got to believe that there’s at least 10,000 superstar programmers using it.”

Mr Nicholls said he believed the recruitment side of the platform would become an invaluable tool for the tech industry.

Aquila’s device which transmits energy to a photovoltaic cell.