Armed with a new round of funding and head of business development, Kris McNeil hopes 2013 will be the year his company Solace Power lands the first customer for its wireless energy technology.

Solace Power was founded in 2007 with the goal of developing a system to deliver electricity without power cords and batteries. In its sixth year, the company has a working prototype and is now looking to license its technology to an end-user, probably in the military equipment space.

 “We’ve got a number of promising discussions on the go,” said president McNeil, ensconced in a meeting area in the Genesis Centre of Memorial University in St. John’s. “We hope to have at least one contract agreement by the end of the year.”

What Solace Power does is deliver electricity through thin air to electrical appliances, equipment or vehicles, doing away with the need for power cords. Some competitors do this through magnetic induction (meaning the electrical device has to be positioned precisely in line with a magnetic coil), but the Solace system does it with an electrical field, allowing more random positioning.

That’s important because if someone were charging, say, an electric car, it would have to be parked in exactly the same spot every time with magnetic induction, but the driver would have a bit more wiggle room with Solace.

The company, which has filed patents in Canada, the U.S. and with the World Patent Office, is exploring several applications. It is now looking most closely at a military application that would allow soldiers in the field to recharge radios, lights and other devices without having to plug them in. Having cables for recharging is just one more thing to weigh soldiers down, which can affect their mobility.

 “We’re looking at licensing a model, so we’re probably looking at licensing it to a company that serves the military,” said McNeil.

With six employees, Solace is about to graduate from the Genesis Centre and move into an office in the St. John’s suburb of Mount Pearl. It has now outgrown its two offices and demo room in the commercialization agency’s offices on the university campus.

The company has been recapitalized with undisclosed equity investments closed recently from the First Angel Network, and existing and new private investors. The company originally raised money from angel investors in 2009.

McNeil said raising money through the angel network fell into place quickly and he was pleased with the deal and contacts he got from the network.

The team is also about to grow with the hiring of Neil Chaulk, previously the vice-president of business development at Verafin, the highly successful St. John’s company that combats money laundering. Chaulk recently spent two years with Verafin, helping to increase revenues severalfold annually.

Before Verafin, he founded ICAN Ltd., a company in the military-paramilitary field that he ran for about 15 years before selling out to CNS Systems of Sweden. McNeil said that experience gave Chaulk “extensive experience and contacts in that market, which is already helping us make inroads for Solace much faster than we would have been able to do without him.”

Several St. John’s business people I spoke with last week suggested the Chaulk hiring is one reason Solace is one to watch.