Open the drawer where you keep your ‘stuff’. How many charging cables are in there? How many of them still work? How many are for devices you no longer own?
If you’re like most people, that drawer is a graveyard of obsolete cords and adapters…a tangled mess that somehow keeps growing despite your best intentions. It’s annoying, but easy to ignore. Now think how many smartphone users there are worldwide, and you start to see the scale of the problem.
The Problem: Charging Hasn’t Kept Up with Changing Tech
The charging market has been stuck for years; cheap, generic options and incremental improvements have dominated the category. Cables break. Charging ports wear out. Wireless charging exists but often feels slow and finicky, with devices slipping out of alignment. Many phones now ship without a charger, leaving you to repurpose something old that might charge your new device at a glacial pace.
Devices have become more powerful and more essential. Smartphone battery capacities have roughly doubled since 2015, from around 2,500 mAh to over 4,500 mAh. High-resolution displays, powerful processors, and 5G connectivity all demand more power. Studies show that 9/10mobile phone users experience “low battery anxiety”— the creeping stress when the battery icon turns red.
Everyone needs their devices to work and to be charged. But the tools used to charge them haven’t kept up with how fast devices change.
A Unique Approach to Charging Your Devices
Enter MAGFAST, a company that’s rethinking the entire category. Instead of offering yet another variation on existing products, they’re building a family of chargers and power banks designed to work together as a system. Think of it as ecosystem-thinking applied to charging:products that snap together magnetically, stack to increase capacity, and deliver power wirelessly without the guesswork.
The flagship product, the Air Pro charging stand, delivers 140 watts of total power through three wireless charging spots and a high-power USB-C port that delivers up to 140 watts. That’s enough to power your phone, tablet, earbuds and high-end laptop simultaneously. It weighs 2.2 pounds, which might sound heavy until you realize that lighter stands tend to tip over when you grab your phone. Sometimes, more weight even feels more luxurious. The wireless charging supports both Qi2 and MagSafe, two names for essentially the same standard, so it works with iPhones and Android phones (the latter works even better with a magnetic case).
What makes it different is the integration. Each of the three wireless spots delivers full power simultaneously. Many multi-device chargers split power unevenly or require you to choose which device gets priority. The Air Pro just handles it all.
The Shift to Cableless Charging
Charging standards have finally changed. For wired charging, USB-C has become the universal standard. For wireless charging, MagSafe (for Apple) and Qi2 (for Android) are essentially the same, using magnetic alignment to ensure devices connect properly. This standardization is good news for consumers, but awareness is still catching up. Many people don’t realize that a Qi2 charger works across brands.
MAGFAST is leaning into wireless-magnetic charging—what they call WMC. The benefits are clear: no wear on charging ports, no cables to break, and recognizable ease. The magnetic alignment solves the biggest frustration with older wireless chargers, which often required precise placement and delivered inconsistent results.
There’s also something to say about the importance of sustainability. Only about 12% of small electronics get recycled, meaning millions of cables end up in landfills. Wireless charging reduces that waste by eliminating the cables that break most often. And because wires are still needed to charge your bigger devices, MAGFAST offers a range of premium cables with lifetime warranties, designed to be the last cables you’ll need. Since its founding, the company has also partnered with trees.org to enable the planting of trees.
A Community-Backed Company
MAGFAST as a company itself, is unique. It’s raised over $21 million from nearly 6,000 individual investors, most of whom are also customers. This crowd-supported model means the people using the products have a financial stake in the company’s success. MAGFAST broadcasts informal updates every month and, a handful of times each year, and hosts live presentations attended by thousands of supporters, where progress and setbacks are discussed openly; essential for the development and improvement of products.
That transparency has been tested. The first generation of products faced manufacturing delays and partnership problems. Instead of going dark, MAGFAST acknowledged the mistakes, pivoted to a new manufacturer, rethought the product range, and kept the community informed. It’s no wonder it has a loyal fanbase that’s stuck with the company through thick and thin.
Room For Growth
The market opportunity is huge. The global battery charger market is projected to grow from $21.7 billion in 2020 to $32 billion by 2026, with wireless charging growing at about 28% annually. There are nearly 7.5 billion smartphone users worldwide, all needing to charge multiple devices daily.
Most of that market is served by generic, low-cost options. MAGFAST is betting that there’s room for a premium ecosystem of charging devices that work together seamlessly, charge quicker, and just blend aesthetically into the background by delivering on the promise of wireless charging. This is your sign to bid farewell to that old drawer full of tangled cables.
Disclaimer: GeekWire newsroom and editorial staff were not involved in the creation of this content..
