Boeing, one of the world’s largest aircraft manufacturers, has committed $10.3 million to help Mount Pearl, NL-based Solace Power to expand its capacity for making wireless charging products.

The Seattle-based manufacturing giant released a statement on Thursday saying that Solace Power, a leader in high-performance wireless power technology, will use the money to establish a surface mount technology production facility in Newfoundland and Labrador.

SMT is a means for applying electronic components directly on to the surface of printed circuit boards for use in commercial markets. This technology can be used not just in the aerospace and defence sector, but also in two of Solace’s other principal markets, telecommunications and automotive industries. The funding will allow Solace to hire about 60 people in the next three to four years, doubling its workforce.

“It’s a huge milestone for us,” said Solace Chief Operating Officer Colin Ryan in an interview. “The technology, in the first 10 years or so of the company, was in pure R&D mode, solving problems that had never been tackled before.

“Really, it’s just in the last three years or so that the technology has been ready to go into volume production. Now this [the Boeing deal] is a true milestone for us and a tipping point where that young company becomes a true scale-up.”

Boeing is not taking an equity investment in Boeing under the deal. Rather, it is committing money to Solace’s expansion under the federal government’s Industrial and Technological Benefits Policy, known as ITB. Under that policy, when the Canadian government makes a sizeable purchase from a foreign company (usually in defence spending), that company must commit to make a commensurate expenditure within Canada.

The project with Solace is part of Boeing’s ITB commitment springing from the government’s 2023 selection of Boeing’s P-8A Poseidon to fulfill its long-range multi-mission aircraft role. Boeing has already spent $2 billion in ITB projects relating to that contract.

Since starting at the Genesis Centre at Memorial University in 2007, Solace has grown into a global leader in delivering wireless electronic charging on an industrial level. It now holds 34 families of patents (meaning the patents for one piece of technology issued in several countries), and five of these families were issued in the last three or four months. About half the company’s operations are dedicated to research and development.

Ryan said the company has raised “tens of millions of dollars” of equity financing over the years. The biggest tranche of funding was a strategic investment by Michigan-based automotive supply company Gentex, signed in late 2023. Solace has not raised since then.

Ryan would not comment directly on the company’s revenues, except to say that revenue growth in 2024 was “quite good and it’s projected to be extremely good in 2025 and onward.”

Said Neil Chaulk, Solace Power’s CEO: “Boeing’s investment ignites a new era of growth, enabling Solace Power to gain access to markets and customers worldwide while benefitting local communities. Boeing and Solace Power have a shared commitment to customer-centric innovation.”