Batteryless was never the point

Still do, to a degree.

But lately, we’ve been sitting with it. Looking at what we’ve built. Talking to people. Watching how our story has landed out in the wild. And it’s become clear:

We need to tell the whole truth now.

Why we told the batteryless story to begin with

Let’s rewind.

When we started ONiO, we weren’t trying to be yet another MCU vendor with a clever logo and a new benchmark.

Honestly, we were terrified of becoming invisible — just another piece of silicon with slightly better power figures and a PDF nobody reads.

So we did what we had to do:

We found a story.

And it was a good one.

Batteryless wasn’t just a gimmick. It was our origin — a design constraint that forced us to think differently. How do you build something that can cold-start from ambient energy alone?

That question led us to ONiO.zero.

It also gave us something way more rare: an actual identity.

In a sea of suit-and-slide-deck semiconductor companies, we stood out. We felt like… people. With a point of view.

We also knew we didn’t want to look like the rest of the industry.

No face, no voice — just PDFs and jargon, occasionally interrupted by a press release or a talking head wandering the exhibition floor, badge swinging, rehearsing the same three phrases to a gimbal.

You know the type: coffee in hand, LinkedIn post ready - “Off to CES - let’s gooo 🚀”

We weren’t interested in that.

We wanted a brand that felt like us: curious, sharp, design-forward. A little weird. Human.

So we built something people could connect with. A chip, yes — but also a story, a tone, an unique visual language. Something that didn’t just talk at people, but invited them in.

A chip can be beautiful. So can the story that carries it.

And batteryless gave us a way to say all of that in one word.

The problem with one story

But here’s the flip side of telling a strong story:

Sometimes people only hear that story. And nothing else.

We got pegged.

As the batteryless guys. The purists.

The ones who build fruit-powered demos and do firefly math.

And to be honest — we love that part.

We still do it.

It’s fun. It makes people think. And it’s real.

But somewhere along the way, people started assuming that was all we were.

And in letting that story lead, we may have oversimplified our own reality.

Because the truth is, most real-world applications aren’t black or white.

Some are perfect for batteryless. Some need a supercap. Some are better off with a rechargeable cell. Others just want 10x battery life and no drama.

We’ve always known that.

We just didn’t talk about it enough.

So what’s actually true?

What’s true is this: ONiO.zero is an absurdly low-power, wireless RISC-V microcontroller that can run on harvested energy — from light, RF, whatever.

In the right conditions, you really can skip the battery entirely.

But that’s not the only way to win.

Maybe you want a BLE-connected sensor that lasts five years on a tiny coin cell.

Or a smart label that never needs charging.

Or a soil monitor with a solar panel and a little backup.

Or a keyboard that powers up as you type.

That’s the world we’re building for.

We didn’t set out to kill the battery.

We set out to design like batteries weren’t guaranteed.

What we actually believe

We believe in designing for power independence.

Not as a feature. As a mindset.

We believe maintenance is the real enemy.

That good design feels invisible.

That “energy harvesting” shouldn’t sound like science fiction.

And that in a few years, asking “how long does it last?” will feel weird — because the answer will just be: as long as you want.

We’re still ONiO

We still love weird builds and scavenged power and the elegance of restraint.

We still care about making semiconductors that don’t feel like they came out of a corporate birth canal.

But more than anything, we care about telling the truth — and telling it well.

So yeah, we’ll still write about the joy of batteryless design.

But we’re also going to show what it looks like to build real systems, with real constraints, in the real world.

Some of those will have no battery.

Some will have a battery that barely gets used.

And some will plug in. That’s okay too.

The point isn’t purity.

The point is possibility.

In the end

We’re not trying to win a sustainability badge.

We’re trying to help engineers design smarter systems - ones that last longer, waste less, and just work.

If that means no battery, great.

If that means fewer batteries in better places, even better.

We’re still ONiO.

We still build chips that run off the air.

We’re just not limiting ourselves to one storyline anymore.

Because the story we’re writing now?

It’s bigger. And more fun. And way more real.