The startup market is an increasingly crowded and competitive field. No matter how good your product us, if you're an individual or small business, breaking out of the pack requires contacts and resources that you may well find difficult to come by without assistance.
Engineering incubators are accelerator programs that work with hardware enthusiasts and entrepreneurs to guide them through the startup process, providing the advice, funding and resources they need to help their ventures to grow. Here are some of the most notable programs:
HAX Accelerator
HAX, formerly “HAXLR8R,” is based in Silicon Valley and is the world’s first accelerator program for hardware, IoT and connected devices. HAX boasts promising results, with an average of $300,000 in backing, 100 percent crowdfunding success and tens of millions of products sold.
Recently HAX increased the amount of funding they offer startups. Now, founders who raise capital beyond the initial accelerator investment of $100,000 will be matched with $200,000 in seed funding. Along with this, HAX has created a bootcamp program called Boost. The 42-day program offers entrepreneurs help to finalize their products, sell to target markets and “cross the bridge of death,” as HAX partner, Benjamin Joffe put it. Boost is offered to current companies of HAX along with new startups that apply.
Startups that have benefited from the HAX program include:
Nomiku is an affordable and easy-to-use “sous vide immersion circulator” - a method of cooking that seals food in airtight plastic bags and places them in prolonged, temperature-controlled water baths. They exceeded their Kickstarter goal of $200,000 by raising more than $580,000. Since the launch of their first product, these food lovers have kept busy. A recent development is the world’s first Wi-Fi-connected sous vide device, bringing top chefs into users’ very own kitchens. This device was their second Kickstarter campaign, which started at a $200,000 goal, but ultimately raised more than $750,000.
Particlehttps://www.particle.io/?redirected=true(formerly known as Spark) is a platform for connected hardware that makes building Wi-Fi-connected products extremely simple. The open-source development kit enables Wi-Fi on any electronic product, allowing users to prototype and manage their IoT products. Particle’s first concept successfully launched on Kickstarter in May 2013, raising more than $550,000 against a relatively modest goal of just $10,000.
Lemnos Labs
Lemnos Labs is a San Francisco-based hardware accelerator focusing on robotics, aerospace, transportation, agriculture and IoT applications. Lemnos Labs is quite different from its counterparts, only investing in 8-12 companies per year and only in those companies that complete their rigorous 6-15 month program. Their intensive program is geared towards early-stage startups, offering higher-than-average investments up to $250,000. The Lemnos Labs program provides assistance from conception to market-ready strategies, encompassing hands-on training in engineering, logistics and marketing.
Startups from Lemnos Labs include:
Nima, formerly known as 6SensorLabs, is a platform for consumers to accurately test their food for allergens and share the results. Their product detects gluten in food in a matter of minutes, and has enabled the many individuals who are gluten-intolerant to avoid getting ill and enjoy their meals. The device is a portable sensor with flexible technology that’s 10 times faster than any existing gluten testing method out there. The company was co-founded by Shireen Yates and Scott Sundvor, who first started working on the product at MIT. The company has raised more than $4 million in seed funding and was named as one of Time Magazine's best inventions of 2015.
Airware is an aerial information platform built to aid the rapid development and operation of commercial UVAs through software, hardware and cloud services. The platform allows its users a customizable, commercial application-specific connection to software, sensors, payloads and aircraft. Founded in 2010, Airware was a part of both Lemnos Labs’ and Y Combinator’s incubators. In 2013, Airware announced $10.7 million in their Series A round of funding from Google Ventures. In 2014 they announced a partnership with NASA to a UAS traffic management system.
Highway1
Highway1 is a hardware startup accelerator also located in San Francisco. Participants receive up to $100,000 in seed funding and spend four months at the Highway1 location, working alongside engineers and the founders to develop their prototypes into workable products. Another interesting perk the incubator provides is a trip to Shenzhen, China to network with manufacturers and tour top facilities.
Highway1 teaches participants the fundamentals of running a business successfully to prepare for potential investors and how to ensure their product and company continue to scale. The company’s impressive portfolio includes 67 startups hailing from 12 different countries, including 24 female startup CEOs and founders, and $86 million in venture funding to date.
Startups from Highway1 include:
Ringly is the maker of smart jewelry for women, most notably a high-tech ring that lights up and buzzes when a phone call or text comes in. The ring is compatible with iOS or Android applications. Ringly exceeded its sales goal after just eight hours of launching and sold 1,000 rings within the first 24 hours. To date, Ringly has raised more than $6.1 million, $5.1 million of which came from Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz.
Navdy is the world’s first transparent Head-Up Display (HUD) for cars. The product projects information from an iPhone or Android phone on the driver’s side of the front windshield. Navdy’s technology is controlled by touch-free hand gestures and voice recognition. Users can post to Facebook, make phone calls or verify a destination simultaneously without taking their eyes off the road. The company raised $26.5 million in two rounds of funding from 14 investors.
Startupbootcamp
Founded in Copenhagen in 2010, Startupbootcamp is a family of industry-focused startup accelerators that provides direct access to an international network of the most relevant members, partners and investors to help entrepreneurs to scale globally. During a three-month program, participants will have the opportunity to make key connections with industry professionals, gain a €15,000 investment for living expenses and six months working in a supportive, collaborative space. By 2014, Startupbootcamp had become the largest startup accelerator in Europe and one of the top three largest in the world, offering programs on multiple continents and working with a network spanning hundreds of cities around the world.
Startups that have graduated from the Startupbootcamp program include:
Mint Solutions is a hardware startup that develops scanning technology known as MedEye, which helps nurses to automatically verify and register medication at the bedside, ensuring that patients get the correct dosage and medication every time. They have raised over $4.4m in funding to date.
TagTagCity aggregates information from platforms such as Facebook and Google Maps to provide tourist information based on a user's geolocation while also automatically creating mobile websites for local businesses. They have raised over $2m in funding to date.
With an 87 per cent survival rate for businesses nurtured by incubators compared to a 44 per cent rate for businesses that attempt to go it alone, the incentive for working with these programs is strong, and with programs now spreading across the globe, you don't need to be based in Silicon Valley to take advantage of the opportunities they provide.
Has your startup worked with an incubator program? Tell us about your experiences in the comments section below...