SnapWireless founders set to expand as portable charging booms

A booming Adelaide electronics company is on track to be worth millions after its young founders started with just $12,000 while working from their parents’ homes.

SnapWireless founders Mark Johnston and Michael Wang are hoping to expand their Adelaide-based empire.

Former part-time Telstra salesmen Mark Johnston and Michael Wang have built a multimillion-dollar empire after seizing an opportunity in the wireless charging market.

They launched SnapWireless in September 2017 and the company is now on track to turn over $25m, as they look to expand.

Like typical tech start-ups, the duo started out in Mr Johnston’s parents’ home, and would work their day job and build SnapWireless outside of business hours.

Investing just $6000 each over the six months the pair developed their first product — a portable charging device for cars — and have since expanded to include universal five-in-one travel chargers, charging pads and powered backpacks.

“We sort of had an idea that if Apple were to launch with wireless charging there’s more than likely going to be an uplift in the market, people wanting to really jump on that trend and use that product,” Mr Johnston said.

Mr Johnston said when they launched “there was nothing like that on the market” but said it is their “stylish” products that separate them from their emerging competitors.

One of the wireless charging devices launched by SnapWireless.

The pair is looking to expand SnapWireless to be “one of the most recognised consumer tech brands in Australia and globally” and continue to keep consumers connected to their devices.

“Michael and I were the only two when starting the business. Now we have 13 people internally and three people offshore,” Mr Johnston said.

Based in Adelaide, SnapWireless said its valuation was about $18.5m as of October last year, when it raised about $456,000 via equity crowd-funding.

Mr Johnston said SnapWireless turned over $5.8m in FY2022, about $16m in FY2023 and is forecast to reach $25m for FY2024.

“I think as we started selling we had a vision that it should be in more categories,” Mr Johnston said.

“There’s charging pads for home, there one for on the go, and then each year the technology advances very fast and every year someone updates their phone, or gets new updates – they want faster charging.

Compact charging devices are proving popular.

“So it is kind of a blessing, you don’t necessarily create anything ridiculously new, it’s just innovating and improving on the current product and solving similar problems that people want faster charging.”

Mr Johnston said SnapWireless products receive upwards of “10,000 orders a month across Australia and the United States” and the pair were initially hesitant about stepping into the tech space.

“We always kind of thought, is it the right business to be in because it’s tech. People don’t necessarily come back and buy multiple products over and over again,” he said.

“We kind of noticed that Apple has multiple categories of products, they update their products year-on-year, so I think that is the path we decided to go down and now we have a broader range of products that could accommodate different people’s needs.”

One of their best selling products on the SnapWireless website is the PowerPack Universal five-in-one power bank, weighing just 276g, the gadget offers a compact solution for users on the go and travelling internationally.

Its major selling point is its interchangeable adaptors which can be used in North America, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Australia, the United Kingdom and Europe.

Originally published as SnapWireless founders set to expand as portable charging booms