Oslo-based ONiO has raised €5 million to ramp production of ONiO.zero – the first general-purpose microcontroller unit (MCU) that cold-starts from under 1µW and runs entirely on ambient energy.
The round was led by Stockholm-based node.vc, with Helsinki’s Maki.vc as co-lead. Existing investors EIC Fund and MP Pension matched the investment and doubled down.
“ONiO represents the kind of breakthrough technology we look for at node.vc,” said Mårten Skogö, Partner at node.vc. “Their ability to power a microcontroller entirely from ambient energy is not only technically impressive – it’s fundamentally changing how we think about sustainable IoT. The team has proven that the technology works in real-world applications, and now it’s time to scale. We’re excited to support ONiO as they bring this game-changing chip to market.”
Founded in 2016, ONiO is a fabless IoT company specialising in ultra-low-power microcontrollers, including the “world’s most power-efficient” MCU. Designed to harness ambient energy, ONiO.zero operates on as little as 22µW/MHz.
The funding accelerates volume production of ONiO.zero – their power-agnostic wireless microcontroller that cold-starts from less than 1µW and runs on ambient energy. Solar, RF, thermal, piezo – it apparently harvests whatever you throw at it.
No batteries required, though “it’s happy to collaborate nicely with them when needed“.
The core mission with ONiO was to stem the massive flow of millions of batteries into oceans and landfills, as well as empower manufacturers with minimalist, user-friendly, and cost-effective power solutions. By unshackling IoT devices from traditional power constraints, ONiO looks to drive a new era of innovation and sustainability in the IoT space.
The company says that everything lives on a single die: A RISC-V CPU, radios, power management, security, memory and much more. They’ve integrated what used to take dozens of components into one chip. It’s been tested in solar keyboards, electronic shelf labels, air quality sensors, asset trackers, and soil sensors monitoring crops.
Now they’re scaling production alongside the dev kits and reference designs that let engineers build the designs that make sense for their applications.
“All that’s left to do is to make a lot more of these super chips,” says the company.
Read the orginal article: https://www.eu-startups.com/2025/06/norwegian-energy-startup-onio-raises-e5-million-for-worlds-lowest-power-mcu/
