About
ZmartCharge, an exciting journey
ZmartCharge was started in Oslo, Norway by Vidar Sandvik and Rick Padrinao in 2022. Both Vidar and Rick hold a history of starting and growing successful companies in the hardware and software industry.
Norway is known as the country with the highest density of electric cars. Since the company is based in Norway, this provided us with the ideal playground for developing and testing chargers for electric cars.
Norway can be warm in the summer and extremely cold in the winter, with the large coast line adding to extreme humidity with salt sea water mixed with the rain. Such a hard environment requires a lot from materials, insulation, and durability and must be considered throughout the entire design and manufacturing process.
We realized early that development of a smart charger will require many talented employees. Thanks to Vidar’s international work over the past 30 years, we have been able to establish a network organization with development teams in Norway, two locations in Asia, and one location in Eastern Europe. In 2023 we were adopted by the Norwegian incubator Smart Innovation Norway and we proudly won a pitching competition in the Smart Innovation Launchpad Accelerator program.
Vidar Sandvik
Vidar Sandvik originally studied electricity, electronics and computers at Oslo Engineer High School. Vidar started his first company doing after service of TVs, DVD players and audio equipment right after the school. This company was sold to the largest household appliances chain in Norway.
Over the coming years Vidar was a key player when the Norwegian Telco Telenor started public Internet service and when Post of Norway started their home delivery service for Internet shops (Bring).
Over the last 25 years Vidar has been working Internationally in extremely successful companies winning numerous awards. Vidar has held many positions doing software and firmware development, hardware design, business development and management. Vidars motto is “Ambitions beats all”.
Rick Padrinao
Rick originally holds a degree within in Accountancy. After University, Rick started the broadcast equipment supplier and system integrator company Composite Technology Inc. in 1996. The company has grown to become a major supplier of studio and broadcast technology to the largest broadcasters and telecoms in Philippines.
Under Rick’s ownership and management, Composite has shown an amazing track record o always be in forefront of technology trends to have the right products for his customers.
Rick is an angel investor and advisor in ZmartCharge as he believes solar energy, energy storage, and electric cars will also be big in Asia. Ricks motto is “Solutions that work, always.”
