Used to be your wallet was the worse possession to lose. These days, it’s your smart phone, a device in service virtually 24 hours a day that contains the most personal data. That fact is not lost on Technocel, a Simi Valley mobile device accessory distributor that has developed a new line of chargers under its Tylt brand that allow Samsung, Apple, and Motorola devices to be powered without plugging into a wall socket. “If people can charge and keep the phone with them, they are happy,” is how Kannyn MacRae, director of product management and marketing, puts it. Tylt makes other accessories as well – cases, screen protectors, earbuds, external speakers, a backpack with built-in battery – but its chargers are the core of the brand founded in 2011. And now with the brand growing, the company relocated its 100 employees last month to new headquarters on Cochran Street that it spent $5.2 million to buy and renovate. The 60,000-square-foot building is five times the size of its old quarters. Rami Rostami, chief executive of Technocel, said the move gives the company a roomier workplace where the product development, sales and marketing, and engineering teams can function as real departments. Manufacturing is done on a contract basis in China. “We want to have an environment where everyone collaborates and works together closely,” Rostami said. Technocel may not be household name but it mixes with some big company – both as a distribution partner and now as a rival – through its in-house brands that include Jellyfish, aimed at female purchasers, and Random Order, an entry-level line. Other well-known accessories brands, some of which are distributed by Technocel, are Otter Products LLC, creator of the rugged OtterBox case, in Ft. Collins, Colo.; Plantronics Inc., in Santa Cruz; and JBL, from Harman International Industries Inc., in Stamford, Conn. Jeff Orr, practice director of mobile devices for ABI Research, a New York technology market intelligence company, projected the cell phone after-market accessories market at about $52 billion globally this year. Even capturing a fraction of 1 percent can be lucrative for new entrants in the market. However, to do that, smaller accessory suppliers must distinguish themselves, perhaps through innovation or value or by targeting a certain demographic. “Success will be determined by what is going to make it more valued and useful than an impulse buy,” Orr said. Changing business Technocel was founded in 1986 in the San Fernando Valley as a computer accessories business. Six year later it entered the cell phone market providing aftermarket gadgets under the Technocel name and from third-party brands to telecomm companies and independent retailers. That business model, however, got upended as Apple Inc. and Samsung Group became dominant in the smart phone market and phone carriers imported their own house bands of accessories to service them. (Think overpriced cell phone cases at the T-Mobile store.) “We were either going to be left on the sidelines or needed to create a brand to bring into the retail market,” MacRae said. So Tylt was born in late 2011, Random Order a year later and Jellyfish debuted this year at the CES trade show for the consumer electronics industry. Working with NewDealDesign, a San Francisco creative agency, one of the first Tylt products was the Band, a car charger that didn’t look like the traditional black charger with the curly cord. These are brightly colored, flat silicone chargers with a smooth tactile feel that came in packaging resembling a box frame. The Band was followed by the Y-Charge, a y-shaped car charger that a driver and passenger could plug into at the same time. It, too, was made from silicone and came in the same bright red, blue or green color scheme. “If we can’t ‘tilt’ a category, as we call it, like a car charger and make it the coolest-looking car charger on the market, we tend to not want to play in that space,” MacRae said. Additions to the Tylt line include the Energi battery pack and sliding power case and Alin, a tool for placing screen protectors. Prices range from $19.99 for the Alin tool for iPhone and Galaxy models to $199.99 for the Energi+, a backpack with a built in charging station. Rostami would not disclose company revenue or sales growth. Some products are made specifically for Apple and Samsung devices because it brings in volume business. “We have a minimum requirement to manufacture so it would be hard to make 10,000 or 20,000 of a case that may not even sell on the market,” Rostami said. The latest Tylt device is Vu, an entry-level wireless charger that costs $69.99. In development is a car-mounted version with a suction cup that attaches to the dashboard. Wireless, or inductive, charging involves placing the mobile device on a stand with three copper coils and the energy transferring to copper coils on the back of the smart phone. MacRae believes wireless chargers will take over the market. “If our bread and butter go away, we have to be in that other space,” he added. Wireless future Steve Ohr, research director at Gartner Inc., a Stamford, Conn. information technology consultancy, said that Technocel is correct in anticipating a wireless charging market will develop but that consumer demand for it now is weak. One challenge facing manufacturers of wireless chargers is making them energy efficient. A traditional wall charger can get 85 percent to 90 percent energy transfer, while a wireless charger delivers 70 percent of the energy. “I have not heard anyone improve on that,” Ohr said. Still, with new products such as wireless charging and others in development, Technocel will be hiring this year. The new location will easily accommodate another 40 employees with space enough for up to 60 more beyond that. That growth would not have been possible at the old location where space was maxed out, MacRae said. Brian Gabler, an assistant city manager and director of economic development for Simi Valley, said Technocel, with its high number of jobs, low impact and growth potential, is just the type of company the city wants. “We are excited they purchased the building,” he said. “It provides more permanence and shows a long-term commitment to the community.”