Batteries have transformed electronic products, bringing about more powerful smartphones, tablets, e-readers, and smartwatches. But in the end, every battery will run out of power.

Perhaps this situation won't last too long. A startup company named RadianX has envisioned a world where portable devices and edge devices can completely do without power cords and still not run out of battery. The key lies in a better type of solar panel.

RadianX has developed a new type of solar material from the perovskite family. This material performs as well outdoors as existing solar panels, but its performance in indoor lighting is twice as good.

"We can collect any type of photons, whether they are from outdoors or indoors, and allow the device to run for longer periods of time – or even continuously," co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Josh Douglas told TechCrunch.

The efficiency of RadianX technology in indoor environments could be the key to unlocking what companies refer to as "edge energy." For example, an e-reader that never needs to be charged, or an IoT sensor that never requires a battery replacement. However, like any new category, unexpected uses may also emerge, including robots with extended battery life or wearable devices that have been hindered for a long time due to battery limitations.

To raise funds for a commercial production line, RadianX recently completed a $5 million seed round of financing led by SOSV and Twynam, with the company exclusively informing TechCrunch. Other investors include One Small Planet, Sachsen Ventures, Avila VC, California Innovation Fund, quantumEDGE, Riceberg Ventures, and Alumni Ventures. In addition to the seed round funds, Pacific Union Technology Precision Manufacturing will also provide an additional $4 million in non-dilutive investment to build a dedicated production line for this startup company.

This isn't a completely new idea – solar calculators have been around for decades – but in recent years it has been neglected, as the power consumption of modern devices has exceeded the capacity of traditional solar panels.

"The key lies in power density," RadianX, co-founder and CEO of Vivian Qu, told TechCrunch. "Perovskite has always been interesting because of its high power density."

Perovskite is not a new concept, but such materials have always had difficulty gaining a firm foothold. They are still more expensive than typical silicon-based solar panels and have slightly less durability, although there has been progress in recent years.

However, they compensate for these shortcomings in terms of power supply capacity – for example, a RadianX panel measuring 1.2 meters by 0.6 meters has a lighting efficiency of 22.33%, which the company claims to be a record-breaking best level.

For RadianX, durability is not really a major issue either. The company has already met a key industry durability standard, and since the products are intended for indoor use, these panels experience less wear and tear. These panels can be as thin as 0.7 millimeters and can also be customized in size according to requirements.

In order to further extract more power from the panels, RadianX is also developing power electronic devices specifically for perovskite. She stated that most of the existing electronic devices are tuned for silicon panels, but "the photovoltaic properties of silicon are very different."

Unlike many other solar companies, RadianX does not intend to sell only bare boards. “RadianX tries to package it all together and sell it as a solution that device manufacturers don’t have to worry about,” says Qu.

In the end, Qu and Douglas hope that their power supply solutions can be used in a variety of devices, from e-readers to factory sensors, and perhaps even in some places they have not yet thought of.