# Nikhil Bharadwaj

> Nikhil Bharadwaj is the CEO and co-founder of Xeal, a New York EV-charging company built around a stubbornly practical idea: a charger should still authorize access and payments when a garage has poor connectivity. A Penn State energy-engineering graduate who worked on solar installations, electric bikes and e-mobility before founding Xeal in 2019, Bharadwaj helped turn early field failures into a patented self-reliant computing protocol. Xeal now serves real-estate customers across hundreds of U.S. cities, while Bharadwaj has moved from CTO and inventor to chief executive.

- **Role:** CEO & Co-Founder at Xeal
- **Organizations:** Xeal, Schneider Electric, Penn State University, American Solar Energy Society, National Electrical Contractors Association
- **Education:** Bachelor's degree in Energy Engineering, minor in Environmental Engineering, Penn State University
- **Known for:** Co-founded Xeal in 2019 and led development of its patented self-reliant computing approach for EV charging., Named with Alexander Isaacson to Forbes' 2025 30 Under 30 list in Transportation & Mobility., Received Penn State's 2016 Student Sustainability Leadership Award.

## Career timeline

- **2015** — Interned with Tata BP Solar, gaining experience with photovoltaic layouts and rooftop solar design.
- **2016** — Received Penn State's Student Sustainability Leadership Award and joined a solar-array installation serving a community water pump in Honduras.
- **2018-2019** — Worked at Schneider Electric as an energy engineer and e-mobility innovation lead.
- **2018** — Formed the founding team that became Xeal with fellow Penn State alumnus Alexander Isaacson.
- **2019** — Co-founded Xeal and initially served as chief technology officer.
- **2021** — Xeal announced its Helix token-ledger technology alongside an $11 million Series A.
- **2022** — Xeal moved its headquarters to New York City's SoHo neighborhood and announced a $40 million Series B.
- **2024** — Named to Forbes' 2025 30 Under 30 list in Transportation & Mobility with co-founder Alexander Isaacson.
- **2025** — Became CEO of Xeal, shifting from the CTO role to lead the company's next stage of growth and scale.
- **2026** — Discussed EV-charger reliability at network scale in an EV Engineering & Infrastructure interview.

## Achievements

- Co-founded Xeal in 2019 and led development of its patented self-reliant computing approach for EV charging.
- Named with Alexander Isaacson to Forbes' 2025 30 Under 30 list in Transportation & Mobility.
- Received Penn State's 2016 Student Sustainability Leadership Award.
- Recognized by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services with EB-1A extraordinary-ability classification in 2022, according to his public LinkedIn profile.
- Finalist in the 2016 TEDxPSU student competition for a talk on climate change and sustainability.
- Serves as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Penn State, mentoring students in climate tech and entrepreneurship.

## Latest updates

- **2026-07** — Appeared in the second part of an EV Engineering & Infrastructure Q&A about reliability, cybersecurity, diagnostics and operations as charging networks scale.
- **2025-11** — Xeal was ranked No. 14 on the 2025 Deloitte Technology Fast 500, an achievement highlighted on the company's site.
- **2025-06** — Announced his move into the CEO role at Xeal, emphasizing continuity, growth and scale.
- **2025-04** — Detailed Xeal's origin, early field failures, self-reliant protocol and expansion plans in an Electric Avenue interview.
- **2025-02** — Penn State's entrepreneurship program profiled his path from energy-engineering student to Xeal co-founder and Entrepreneur-in-Residence.

## Links

- Website: https://xealenergy.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilsbharadwaj
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/xealenergy
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwihNYxue70
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/xealenergy

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/nikhil-bharadwaj
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-27