A New Era of Green Electronics: BeFC and ONiO Launch Strategic Partnership
Today, BeFC, a leading pioneer in metal-free, paper-based biofuel cell technology, and ONiO, the creators of the world’s lowest-power microcontroller, ONiO.zero, announced a strategic partnership to accelerate sustainable next-generation smart devices across healthcare, logistics, smart packaging, environmental sensing, and defense.
Together, the two companies are co-developing turnkey reference designs, such as glucose monitors, temperature patches, and cold-chain trackers, enabling manufacturers to build thin, disposable, and fully untethered IoT products that meet stringent regulatory and environmental requirements.
ONiO.zero brings sensing, processing, data logging, and wireless communication together in one ultra-efficient chip. This unified design allows all system functions to work together with very low energy use, delivering performance that is difficult to achieve with traditional multi-component solutions.
BeFC’s recyclable, metal-free biofuel cells complement this architecture with a clean, ultra-low-impact power source capable of running devices from minutes to months, depending on the use case. Together, they create a highly efficient foundation for battery-free smart electronics.
The partnership between BeFC and ONiO brings together cost competitiveness, performance, advanced features, and the sustainability credentials the industry increasingly expects.
— Dr. Jules Hammond, CTO & Co-Founder, BeFC
A Pathway to Fully Sustainable Smart Devices
The collaboration supports a shared goal: reducing reliance on lithium-based and coin-cell batteries in high-volume, regulated markets. By combining ONiO.zero’s ultra-low-power microcontroller with BeFC’s metal-free paper-based energy source, the partnership aims to make large-scale deployment of eco-designed electronics practical across medical diagnostics, pharmaceutical logistics, and smart packaging.
Core objectives of the Partnership
- Enable battery-free sensing devices for healthcare, logistics, smart packaging, and environmental monitoring without compromising performance or communication reliability.
- Deliver turnkey reference designs for high-volume applications, giving manufacturers a rapid path to commercialization.
- Offer a scalable alternative to toxic coin-cell batteries, supporting compliance with emerging environmental regulations.
- Demonstrate a sustainable system architecture for next-generation electronics, designed for recyclability, circularity, and broad market adoption.
We are delighted to be working with industry leaders like BeFC, who are at the forefront of renewable and sustainable energy technologies. ONiO.zero and BeFC’s paper-based fuel cell are a natural fit. Together, they unlock applications that were previously impossible without primary batteries or significant cost penalties.
— Vemund Bakken, CTO & Co-Founder, ONiO
How the Technologies Work Together
BeFC provides clean, metal-free micro-energy. ONiO.zero provides the sensing, processing, and wireless communication. Because ONiO.zero operates on extremely low power, a single BeFC paper-based fuel cell can support devices for months instead of days, enabling continuous monitoring and dependable data transmission.
The result is a complementary platform that makes practical battery-free electronics possible across a wide range of applications.
About ONiO
ONiO is a fabless semiconductor company based in Oslo, Norway.
ONiO builds microcontrollers that run entirely on ambient energy.
Our flagship product, ONiO.zero, is a multipurpose wireless MCU and the most energy-efficient microcontroller ever built - capable of cold-starting and operating from less than 1 µW of harvested power.
We believe a trillion-sensor world cannot depend on disposable batteries. Self-powered IoT is not an upgrade; it is an inevitability.
ONiO’s mission is to enable a future where connected devices are fully untethered, maintenance-free, and powered by their environment.
At its core, ONiO gives product teams true design freedom - letting them focus on what really matters, which is, the application. ONiO.zero powers itself from ambient energy, making it possible to build connected devices without the constraints, compromises, or endless maintenance loops that strictly battery-powered, legacy solutions impose.
About BeFC
Inspired by nature, BeFC develops sustainable, metal-free biofuel cells designed to eliminate the need for lithium-based and coin-cell batteries in the next generation of smart devices. Born from decades of academic research, BeFC’s patented paper-based biofuel cells generate electricity using only paper, enzymes, and sugar offering a clean, safe, and fully recyclable power source for high-volume applications such as medical diagnostics, wearables, consumer goods, and smart logistics.
Founded in 2020, BeFC’s mission is to drastically reduce the environmental impact of microelectronics by providing a scalable, cost-efficient alternative to conventional batteries. The company aims to power the future of eco-designed electronics with recyclable, on-demand low-energy solutions that support global sustainability goals and emerging environmental regulations.
Contact Information:
To learn more about the partnership or to explore collaboration opportunities, please contact:
BeFC
info@befc.fr
www.befc.fr