Bolis Ibrahim, co-founder and president of Cence Power, and his team are tackling energy waste in buildings with an unprecedented solution. Their patented direct current power distribution technology dramatically reduces energy consumption.
In 2023, Cence Power’s technology earned Ibrahim a coveted spot on Forbes’ Top 30 under 30 in Manufacturing & Industry as an entrepreneur to watch—a remarkable feat Ibrahim could not have imagined when he began his entrepreneurial journey a decade ago.
Ibrahim (Electrical Engineering '19) first learned about entrepreneurship while working with student group TMU Enactus’ Project StartMeUp back in 2014. “I didn’t really understand what an entrepreneur was. Helping students find the resources they needed to launch their own businesses inspired me to start something on my own.”
He decided to create a solar-powered battery system to electrify the hot dog carts on campus, which were using gas-powered generators to power their lights. “We over-engineered a solution and quickly realized the market was very niche and not sustainable.”
Pivoting for success
That led to his first pivot—and a critical lesson: “You should start with a high-quality problem and then try and find a 10-times better solution for that problem. I got lucky that the solution was relevant on a larger scale and there was an important problem to solve.”
He pivoted again, applying his direct current power distribution technology to buildings. Ibrahim turned to TMU’s Clean Energy Zone and the Innovation Boost Zone (IBZ) for access to funding, mentorship and lab space. He also found support as a three-time winner of the Norman Esch Awards, a program for TMU engineering students with entrepreneurial projects.
As president of the company after Cence Power purchased his original enterprise, Argentum Electronics, Ibrahim now predicts the diversion of millions of tonnes of CO₂ emissions from the energy and material savings that their customers get from using the company’s DC power distribution systems for LED lighting, telecom and HVAC systems.
Best advice for future founders: “There is a process to creating an entrepreneurial venture. Find the right people, the right problem, the right solution; create the right product for the right market and make sure it’s 10 times better than whatever else is out there. The way power was distributed has been essentially the same. We came up with a solution that was unprecedented, and we ran with it.”
What keeps Bolis Ibrahim motivated?
“Knowing that we are introducing technologies that make the world a better place and that push us forward.”
