Vertical Partners West

While Benjamin Franklin was the first man to use the term “battery” in his electricity-related experiments, it was an Italian physicist, Alessandro Volta, who invented the device 51 years later in 1800. Since then, the invention has been utilized in ways neither of the two great minds could have expected. From large-scale, industrial batteries to the smallest of button cells, the technology that allows the storage and utilization of energy, has paved the way for innumerous innovations for years to come. Continuing that legacy, centuries later, is Vertical Partners West, LLC (VPW), a holistic, battery and charging systems solutions provider.

Based out of Idaho, VPW focuses on designing, developing, and wholesale distribution of the latest custom and turnkey batteries, battery management systems (BMS), battery charging management systems (BCMS), and several other related products. Founded in 2001, the company initially catered to the radio-controlled (RC) hobby industry before delving into producing ‘mission-critical power solutions’ for the aerospace and defense verticals throughout the US. “We excel at delivering highly customized products to support unmanned drones, UAVs, robotics, and RC-based technologies,” adds Keith Wallace, CEO of VPW.

The company, according to Wallace, offers its clients the best customer experience (CX) owing to a unique characteristic blend of being “big enough to access the best manufacturing and supply
chain, yet small enough to provide an incredible level of personalized service.” VPW accomplishes this feat by understanding what plagues the marketplace today and helps organizations successfully overcome their challenges.

A common problem that persists all across the industry remains to be a lack of general knowledge regarding power and battery-based systems. “People still believe that a battery is a battery; it is as simple as buying a tank of gas from the station. But that simply is not the case,” expresses Wallace. In light of this, VPW invests a significant amount of their time in educating their clients. This in turn allows them both to understand each other better and collaborate to develop a solution that is specifically designed for various applications.

The company’s exceptional client-centric approach has driven Wallace and his team to explore new avenues of improving CX, which helped the company grow multifold since its inception nearly two decades ago. Having worked closely with several original equipment manufacturers in the aerospace and defense industries, VPW understands the importance of effective BMS and BCMS. With its rack-mounted BCMS, the company supports an operator to seamlessly catalog, track, and manage the location, health, and capacity of a battery within an entire fleet of drones. “We provide an operator with a clean, safe, easy-to-use system that integrates with existing connected devices and streamlines operability alongside improving maintainability of unmanned devices, be it aerial, terrestrial, or marine,” states Wallace. VPW also ensures that an operator is well within the FAA’s guidelines by generating certified reports of every battery-run device, which helps its clients stay compliant without redundant regulatory interruptions.

VPW currently parents many leading international companies and intends to further establish its footprint in the renewable energy marketplaces on a global scale. Moving forward, the company looks forward to developing battery solutions for automated technologies and advanced robotics. In a world where nearly everything is battery powered, the future for VPW seems to be supercharged with unimpeded growth.