Ideal Power gains traction with Forbes Global 500 as it prepares for 2025 initial sales ramp

Ideal Power Inc (NASDAQ:IPWR) expects commercial sales to start ramping up in the second half of 2025 after completing a key milestone ahead of schedule related to its first design win and gaining momentum with large customers.

The company is advancing programs in industrial markets and electric vehicles, including collaborations with Stellantis, and expanding its global reach.

In an interview with Proactive, Dan Brdar, CEO of Ideal Power, touched on the company’s strong start to 2025, highlighted by accelerated prototype development three months ahead of schedule related to its first design win, and expanding global partnerships. Brdar also shared insights on how Ideal Power is gaining momentum with major Forbes Global 500 customers, the strategic focus driving commercialization, and the milestones they aim to achieve for a successful sales ramp in the second half of the year.

Proactive: Dan, you mentioned completing SSCB prototypes three months ahead of schedule—what were the key factors that enabled this accelerated development timeline?

Dan Brdar: Part of it is that we have devices available in-house, so we don't have to wait for them to be manufactured. We also have a strong understanding of the application—we’ve spent quite a bit of time on it. In fact, we've developed a circuit breaker reference design to deepen our understanding and help potential customers evaluate our technology. This allows us to hit the ground running when they sent us their silicon carbide-based prototypes and asked us to retrofit them. We can move quickly.

That obviously really helps to further commercialize the product, doesn't it?

It does. Customers appreciate having a technology partner who’s highly responsive and understands their application. When we can quickly provide the information they need or carry out specific testing, it reinforces that we’re a strong partner.

Can you expand on the significance of the new order from the third Forbes Global 500 company, and what it signals about market validation for B-TRAN technology?

It's interesting—what we're seeing is that these very large companies recognize the massive investments and upgrades needed in the world’s electricity transmission and distribution infrastructure, both here and in Europe, to support the growing demand for EV charging, distributed generation like solar, and energy storage systems. They’re saying, 'We need a better solution than what's currently available.' As we attend technology conferences and people learn about our technology, we’re increasingly being approached by companies saying, 'This might be the solution I’ve been looking for.'

Now that multiple Forbes Global 500 companies are engaging with us, it really sends a strong message. And if we can name them, that is fabulous because they are company names that people would recognize. These companies tend to pay close attention to what their competitors are doing—when one makes a move, others take notice and ask, 'Why aren’t we doing the same?'

You expect an initial sales ramp in the second half of 2025—what milestones must be hit between now and then to ensure that ramp materializes as planned?

Well, I think the key to driving a lot of this forward is getting some of the design wins we're working on across the finish line. Securing an official purchase order for the new program with Stellantis, so we can begin execution, will also be a major milestone. Ultimately, it comes down to continuing what we’ve been doing and finalizing a few things with some of these large companies. They tend to move slowly, but it looks like we’re getting very close to wrapping some of them up.

You’ve recently expanded into Asia and Europe through a partnership with Queensland Semiconductor Technologies (aka Quest Semi)—what kind of traction are you seeing in those markets so far?

Quest Semi brings a lot of relationships that we don’t currently have—both in the industrial and automotive sectors. They have long-standing partnerships with companies through their other semiconductor products, and we’re now able to leverage those connections. They’ve already started introducing us to new customers and industry players we hadn’t been able to reach on our own. In fact, at the PCIM conference in Nuremberg, Germany, we met with them specifically to help facilitate some of those introductions. So I believe it’s going to be a productive relationship.

How are you prioritizing investments across R&D, sales, and manufacturing to scale commercial operations?

It's really about focusing on a few key applications where our technology is uniquely enabling—specifically EV contactors and solid-state circuit breakers. While there are many other areas where our technology could be applied, we're intentionally staying focused to secure design wins in these high-impact applications. That focus will allow us to ramp up quickly. From there, we can broaden our reach to include additional applications.

This approach also ensures that our engineering team remains focused on delivering the best possible product for these use cases, and our sales team isn’t spread thin chasing dozens of opportunities. Instead, we're directing them to concentrate on areas where B-TRAN is an enabling technology. We believe due to ultra-low conduction losses, B-TRAN is an enabling technology that could result in widespread adoption of solid-state circuity breakers for industrial and utility markets. And the B-TRAN value proposition is similarly applicable for electric vehicle contactors where it is also an enabling technology.

What are some of the takeaways that you'd like investors to have from this quarter?

We're continuing to gain real traction—completing the prototypes for a design win customer ahead of schedule, progressing towards design wins with other larger companies, receiving validation from Stellantis, and now moving into a second program with them, which speaks volumes. You don’t get a second program unless the first one went well. We're also seeing more and more large Forbes Global 500 companies evaluating our technology and investing real time and resources to explore how they can implement it. Our focus is on additional design wins and, ultimately, revenue growth. So it's a very important year for us in terms of making meaningful progress on our commercialization roadmap.