If my world travels over the last year have taught me anything, it is just how dependent we are on our smartphones. From the groups of businessmen, musicians and moms huddled around charging stations in the airport to the families starting vacations together rapidly taking in as much internet, social media, news or e-mail before boarding the plane, it seems that once we own one, we can no longer live without it. Yet inevitably, at some point, we have all been faced with the horrifying realization that we have 5% battery life left and a whole day to try and make it last. A company called StoreDot gets how stressful this can be, and has developed technology that can give your phone a full day’s charge in a matter of seconds.

StoreDot, a Tel Aviv based nanotechnology company, has developed a battery that can store a much higher charge more quickly using special ‘nanodots’. These nanodots are actually artificial peptide molecules which measure about 2.1 nanometers in diameter and are synthesized and released into the battery to rapidly increase its absorption and retention of power. The technology, which was originally discovered in Tel Aviv nearly 10 years ago as part of an Alzheimer’s disease research project, ended up making its technological debut when researchers at StoreDot began incorporating them into memory chips. When paired with a battery, these nanodots essentially turned it into a super-dense sponge, which was able to quickly soak up power as well as retain it.

While the current prototype is far too bulky to be convenient for mobile phones, the company believes that it will have a viable product ready for commercialization by 2016 with a slim, smartphone-friendly version on the market by early 2017. Given the amount of monetary support they have received thus far, they seem on target to do just that. So far they have generated $48 million dollars in funding, $10 million of which is said to have come from Russian billionaire and Chelsea soccer club owner Roman Abramovich. Additionally, StoreDot’s founder and chief executive Doron Myersdorf has confirmed that they have received backing from a leading manufacturer of mobile phones. While he would not reveal specifically which company it is, he has said that it is based in Asia.

The addition of this new battery technology would cost between $100-150 more than the average smartphone does now, and should be able to handle around 1,500 recharge cycles for a three-year lifespan. The company hopes to expand this same technology to electric cars in the near future as well, turning what used to be an overnight charge for a vehicle into one that takes just a few minutes. If they are able to make the necessary adjustments to create a commercially viable product, it’s a breakthrough that would be huge for the field of battery power technology.