Laser-Powered Drones
SolaNika’s seed round points to a different approach at the power bottleneck in drone autonomy.
Laser-powered drones make for this week's most unique funding story. Tokyo startup SolaNika is targeting a different bottleneck: power.
The company, founded in May 2025, raised an undisclosed seed round this week to develop laser-based wireless power transmission for drones. Rather than increasing battery capacity, SolaNika’s system keeps a drone airborne by transmitting energy from a ground station to an onboard receiver.
The idea originally came from space. According to the company, CEO Mai Kikuchi became interested in wireless power transmission after encountering the economics of space exploration, where transporting payloads can cost around ¥150 million, or roughly $1 million, per kilogram.
Heavy batteries become a significant penalty when every kilogram launched into orbit carries an enormous cost. Rather than carrying larger energy stores, the idea is to separate the power source from the vehicle itself.
The same principle can apply much closer to Earth. Instead of landing for battery swaps or carrying increasingly heavy battery packs, drones could receive power continuously while operating inside a laser-powered service area.
The seed round itself was undisclosed, but there is an interesting story in the ecosystem beginning to form around the company. SolaNika was selected for Honda’s IGNITION startup programme, received research grant support from the Mitsubishi UFJ Technology Development Foundation for automated laser tracking and predictive control, and has signed a basic agreement with EAMS Robotics. EAMS is a Fukushima-based industrial drone company focused on inspection and infrastructure monitoring. The agreement will integrate wireless power technology into operational platforms.
None of these represent major commercial deployments. They do suggest that established Japanese organisations see enough technical promise to support further development.
Battery technology usually dominates discussions around drone endurance. Wireless power approaches attack the problem from another direction. Rather than storing more energy onboard, they attempt to deliver energy precisely enough that batteries become less of the limiting factor.
The engineering challenge is substantial. Laser systems must maintain accurate tracking of moving aircraft while accounting for vibration, weather, atmospheric conditions, safety constraints and beam alignment. Practical challenges remain. Line-of-sight requirements, weather sensitivity where clouds degrade laser transmission, beam-safety regulations, and tracking accuracy in field conditions all present obstacles. Commercial deployment will depend as much on reliability and regulation as transmission efficiency.
SolaNika says it has achieved more than 20 percent laser wireless power transmission efficiency and is targeting a long-duration drone hovering demonstration during 2026.
Laser-based wireless power transmission is not new. Space agencies, including JAXA, have researched it for decades as part of space-based solar power concepts. SolaNika is attempting to commercialise that research into a terrestrial robotics application, moving a problem from the lab into operational drones.
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