Oxford: New CEO heads start-up's drive into wireless charging

Oxford-based metamaterials start-up Metaboards has appointed Nedko Ivanov as its new CEO to lead its drive into the metamaterials licencing industry. Ivanov was most recently CEO of Redux, where he achieved a successful exit for the company in August 2017.

Ivanov’s appointment follows the appointment of Pete Hutton as chairman. Hutton’s previous role was as president of product groups at ARM, where he was responsible for all product development, marketing and licencing, covering 3,500 staff globally.

Hutton commented: “Nedko’s experience and expertise in leading technology start-ups to acquisition makes him ideal to lead Metaboards. His experience, most recently at Redux and BullGuard will help us maximise the opportunity to lead the growing metamaterials market.”

Ivanov said: “After Redux was acquired I received a number of opportunities. By far the most interesting was Metaboards and I look forward to working with Pete, the board and the talented team in Oxford to grow the business in a dynamic market.”

Metaboards is a start-up business, based in Oxford. The company resulted from research conducted by Oxford University into metamaterials – currently one of the most dynamic scientific research areas. Metamaterials are materials engineered to produce properties that do not occur naturally.

Metaboards’ initial focus is deploying metamaterials to deliver wireless power across large surfaces. Metaboards has created products that can be embedded into any non-metal surface to wirelessly charge multiple devices simultaneously without the need for close alignment or multiple power sources – a global first. The wireless power market is forecast to be worth $37.2 billion by 2022.