Akshay Bhuva wants to make kitchens safer, more accessible and aesthetically pleasing — and believes he can do it all through a blender.
“The kitchen is the space that gets the most amount of foot traffic in everyone’s home; it’s the heart,” he said. “And it’s so important we make the space very accessible and a socially welcoming space.”
His company, Kitchenery, is building a line of cordless small kitchen appliances like toasters, blenders and mixers. Unlike other cordless appliances that run on batteries, his use a patented technology that makes them entirely self-sustainable.
“You’re creating more powerful, more efficient appliances,” he said, adding it is more cost-efficient due to the increasing price of batteries as countries across the globe focus on sustainability efforts.
It’s caught the eyes of accelerator giant Techstars, which hosted Kitchenery in its spring cohort sponsored by manufacturing titan Stanley Black & Decker. Bhuva recently pitched at the cohort’s Demo Day and is in the process of closing a pre-seed round for $2 million.
“We’re moving very, very fast, as you can see,” Bhuva said. “Last year, we didn’t even have the product; now we have global manufacturing partners, multiple tech patents and offerings and have lined up brand partnerships.”
The technology is implemented through electromagnetic coils placed within the appliances with a receiver module. Through the module, a magnetic field will power the appliance. Bhuva hopes to have a pilot project for the next six to eight months and manufacture by Q1 of 2023.
“We had the initial hardware figured out, and now we have grown to actual physical prototypes so you can get a look and feel for the tech,” he said. “We now have a vision for the kitchen of the future, and it’s so important.”
The long-term goal, he said, is to incorporate the technology into appliances from multiple manufacturers and eventually have voice-enabled appliances connected to Google Home and Apple.
“You can speak to your coffee maker, saying, ‘I need a cup every day at 6 a.m.,’” he said. “Once we do our initial pilot testing and figure out the market, these are some of the value-added features we’re looking at.”
The company was founded in 2019 and has grown to four full-time employees. It’s also in the University of Tampa Spartan Accelerator program, which was the catalyst for Bhuva moving from his automobile-focused engineering job in the Midwest to taking the entrepreneurial leap in Florida. Tampa Bay Inno tapped Bhuva as a 25 Under 25 honoree in 2021.
“I have made a good base here with my advisers based mostly out of Tampa — I love this city,” he said. “And I would say the city has started to accept me.”
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