The Top 50 Hardware Startups That Have Raised Less Than $100 Million
While the main recruiting season might be over, hardware startups are always looking for interns. They're an excellent way to grow the company and ease the burden on overworked full-time engineers. These hardware startups are too small to have recruiters, so you need to reach out to them! Follow our LinkedIn Trojan Horse Guide to get an interview. We know people who have interviewed on a Wednesday at a startup and started working at a hardware startup the following Monday. It’s not too late!
Hardware startups can also be a great place to start your career. You will get lots of responsibility and the equity in the hardware startup may be worth a lot in the future! During an economic downturn when larger companies are not hiring or aren’t paying as much as they once were, a hardware startup can be an awesome alternative because their success is not dependent on short-term revenue, but rather on short term ability to demonstrate potential. Thus they can be slightly decoupled from traditional downturns if they have sufficient runway. hardware startups, hardware startups, hardware startups, hardware startups
We first wrote a version of this article/list 2 years ago. The goal was to find 50 hardware startups in 5 different spheres (aerospace, clean tech, construction, EVs, and bio tech) that had raised less than 50 million dollars. We had some hits like Regent, Machina Labs, and Navier! We also had our fair share of misses (it’s okay, so do the VCs). We want to revamp the list! (The old companies are at the bottom).
This time we are changing the categories to Space, Manufacturing, Defense, Robotics, and Other (we need a catch-all for other sick companies!) and we are upping the maximum to $100M in funding.
The 2024 Version Of 50 Hardware Startups
Space Hardware Startups
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Agile Space Industries
Agile Space Industries is a propulsion solutions provider, specializing in hypergolic propellants.
Agile Space Industries is located in Durango, Co, has 50 employees, and has raised $14 million dollars to date.
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Muon Space
Muon Soace is building a climate-monitoring satellite constellation.
Muon Space is located in Mountain View, CA, has 45 employees, and has raised $35 million dollars to date.
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Impulse Space
Impulse is a Space 2.0 pioneer that provides agile, economical in-space payload delivery and hosting.
Impulse Space is located in Redondo Beach, CA, has 85 employees, and has raised $75 million dollars to date.
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Vista Space
Vista Space is building modular structural batteries for lightweight, high-energy satellite buses.
Vista Space is located in San Francisco, CA, has 3 employees, and has raised $500k to date.
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Northwood Space
Northwood is trying to supply the ground-side communications systems at scale for companies like other space startups.
Northwood Space is located in El Segundo, CA, has 6 employees, and has raised $6.3 million dollars to date. -
Orbit Fab
Orbit Fab is building gas stations in space.
Orbit Fab is located in Boulder, CO, has 60 employees, and has raised $50 million dollars to date.
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Morpheus Space
Morpheus Space is unlocking satellite mobility with the efficiency of our next-gen GO-2 electric propulsion systems.
Morpheus Space is located in Los Angeles, CA, has 50 employees, and has raised $30 million dollars to date.
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Vaya Space
Vaya Space is building a Vortex-Hybrid engine providing environmentally-friendly small satellite launch opportunities.
Vaya Space is located in Cocoa, Florida, has 80 employees, and has raised $30 million dollars to date.
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Nuview
Nuview is creating the gold standard of elevation data using the world’s first commercial constellation of LiDAR imaging satellites.
Nuview is located in Orlando, Florida, has 14 employees, and has raised $18 million dollars to date.
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Inversion Space
Inversion is developing low-cost, high cadence re-entry vehicles.
Inversion Space is located in Torrance, CA, has 30 employees, and has raised $10 million dollars to date.
Manufacturing Hardware Startups
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Astro Mechanica
Astro Mechanica is pioneering the world's most efficient engine.
Astro Mechanica is located in San Francisco, CA, has 5 employees, and has raised $0.5 million dollars to date.
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Fabric8 Labs
Fabric8 Labs is leveraging Electrochemical Additive Manufacturing (ECAM) a room-temperature 3D metal printing technology to produce complex, dense metal parts without thermal processing.
Fabric8 Labs is located in San Diego, CA, has 60 employees, and has raised $80 million dollars to date.
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Fortify
Fortify combines magnetics and DLP (digital light processing) to produce custom microstructures in high-resolution 3D printed composite parts.
Fortify is located in Boston, MA, has 30 employees, and has raised $40 million dollars to date.
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Invert Robotics
Invert Robotics designs, builds and sells bespoke NDT robotic inspection platforms.
Invert Robotics is located in Dublin, Ireland, has 30 employees, and has raised $40 million dollars to date.
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Atomic 6
Atomic-6 is committed to bringing next-generation composites to the forefront of the Aerospace, Hypersonics, and Ballistics industries
Atomic 6 is located in Marietta,GA, has 11 employees, and has raised $5 million dollars to date.
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FormLogic
Formlogic is building autonomous precision manufacturing for space companies
Orbit Fab is located in Boulder, CO, has 60 employees, and has raised $50 million dollars to date.
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Pivot Robotics
Pivot Robotics is making AI software for robotic arms that helps manufacturers automate their most labor intensive tasks.
Pivot Robotics is located in San Francisco, CA, has 3 employees, and has raised $500k to date.
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Mantle
Mantle’s 3D printers are the most efficient way to produce mold and die inserts with the accuracy, surface finish, and tool steel properties demanded by toolmakers.
Mantle is located in San Francisco, CA, has 40 employees, and has raised $30 million dollars to date.
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Vulcan Elements
Vulcan Elements is manufacturing rare earth magnets for a secure, sustainable future.
Vulcan Elements is located in Denver, CO, has 3 employees, and has raised $5 million dollars to date.
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OptySis
OptySis is reimagining RF antennas via metal 3D printing.
OptySis is located in West Jordan, UT, has 30 employees, and has raised $15 million dollars to date.
Defense Hardware Startups
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Mach Industries
Mach is developing a suite of hydrogen-powered platforms and munitions for the military.
Mach Industries is located in Huntington Beach, CA, has 40 employees, and has raised $85 million dollars to date.
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Picogrid
Picogrid builds a common platform to connect defense and autonomous systems.
Picogrid is located in El Segundo, CA, has 10 employees, and has raised $12 million dollars to date.
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AeroDome
Aerodome is providing drone air support to law enforcement, wildfire protection, and search an rescue.
AeroDome is located in New York, NY, has 16 employees, and has raised $6.5 million dollars to date.
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Castelion
Castelion is designing, building, and testing next generation long range strike weapons systems.
Castelion is located in El Segundo, CA, has 18 employees, and has raised $15 million dollars to date.
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General Radar
General Radar is building the first commercial scalable multi-mission long range AESA radar.
General Radar is located in Menlo Park, CA, has 60 employees, and has raised $40 million dollars to date.
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Firestorm
Firestorm is building modular unmanned drones built at the edge.
Firestorm is located in San Diego, CA, has 25 employees, and has raised $13 million dollars to date.
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Specter Aerospace
Specter Aerospace is building hypersonic vehicles that will deter future conflicts and connect the world like never before.
Specter Aerospace is located in Cambridge, MA, has 25 employees, and has raised $9.5 million dollars to date.
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Performace Drone Works
PDW is developing small autonomous UAS platforms enabling the modern warfighter to maximize mission effectiveness.
Performace Drone Works is located in Huntsville, AL, has 50 employees, and has raised $9 million dollars to date.
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Allen Control Systems
ACS is developing counter-drone robotic gun systems targeted at neutralizing attacking drone swarms.
Allen Control Systems is located in Austin, TX, has 7 employees, and has raised $12 million dollars to date.
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Saronic
Saronic is building autonomous surface ships for the Navy and U.S.-aligned defense customers.
Saronic is located in Austin, TX, has 45 employees, and has raised $70 million dollars to date.
Robotics Hardware Startups
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Apptronik
Apptronik is building a general purpose humanoid robot designed to work in the real world.
Apptronik is located in Austin, TX, has 80 employees, and has raised $30 million dollars to date.
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Tevel
Tevel is building flying fruit picking robots.
Tevel is located in Gedera, Israel, has 56 employees, and has raised $40 million dollars to date.
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Multiply Labs
Multiply Labs is building robotic systems to manufacture gene modified cell therapies at industrial scale.
Multiply Labs is located in San Francisco, CA, has 40 employees, and has raised $36 million dollars to date.
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Carbon Robotics
Carbon Robotics builds/sells a computer vision laser weeding system with 6 billion weeds killed to date.
Carbon Robotics is located in Seattle, WA, has 150 employees, and has raised $80 million dollars to date.
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Tortuga
Tortuga is automating labor-intensive tasks on the farm with robotics.
Tortuga is located in Denver, CO, has 30 employees, and has raised $20 million dollars to date.
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Bedrock
Bedrock is developing technology to rethink the way the world collects and uses seafloor data.
Bedrock is located in Brooklyn, NY, has 40 employees, and has raised $40 million dollars to date.
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Electric Sheep
Electric Sheep is building autonomous lawn-care robots.
Electric Sheep is located in San Francisco, CA, has 15 employees, and has raised $22 million dollars to date.
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Wilder Systems
Wilder Systems is building a Robots as a Service for the aerospace manufacturing and maintenance processes for commercial and military use.
Wilder Systems is located in Austin, TX, has 25 employees, and has raised $11 million dollars to date.
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Pattern Labs
Pattern Labs is building an ecosystem of airport robots for baggage.
Pattern Labs is located in Erie, CO, has 20 employees, and has raised $10 million dollars to date.
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Matic
Matic is building a a remarkably smart, proactive, and secure floor cleaning robot that uses photo-realistic vision with precise 3D mapping to provide a home with perpetually clean floors.
Matic is located in Mountain View, CA, has 40 employees, and has raised $30 million dollars to date.
Other Hardware Startups
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Radiant
Radiant is building a portable micro nuclear reactor for comercial and military applications.
Radiant is located in El Segundo, CA, has 40 employees, and has raised $54 million dollars to date.
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JetCool
JetCool is a leading liquid cooling provider for AI-driven data centers and high-performance computing.
JetCool is located in Littleton, MA, has 30 employees, and has raised $20 million dollars to date.
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Skydweller Aero
Skydweller Aero is developing solar powered aircraft solutions capable of achieving perpetual flight with the highest—and most meaningful—payload capacity.
Skydweller Aero is located in Oklahoma City, OK, has 120 employees, and has raised $70 million dollars to date.
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Verve Motion
Verve Motion is building the first high-performance rapid setup exosuit for the workplace.
Verve Motion is located in Cambridge, MA, has 50 employees, and has raised $40 million dollars to date.
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Atomic Semi
Atomic Semi is building a small, fast semiconductor fab.
Atomic Semi is located in San Francisco, CA, has 20 employees, and has raised $15 million dollars to date.
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Anthro
Anthro is developing flexible lithium-ion batteries.
Anthro is located in San Jose, CA, has 25 employees, and has raised $27 million dollars to date.
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Unearthly Materials
Unearthly Materials discovered the first material that is superconducting at ambient temperature and aspire to bring its benefits to everyone(***note, we don't know if this is actually true).
Unearthly Materials is located in Rochester, NY, has 10 employees, and has raised $17 million dollars to date.
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Pipedream
Pipedream is an autonomous underground rail system that offers near-instantaneous delivery of objects to and from homes and businesses.
Pipedream is located in Austin, TX, has 10 employees, and has raised $13 million dollars to date.
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Zadar
Zadar Labs is developing next generation Software-Defined 4D Imaging Radar (SDIR) platforms.
Zadar is located in Santa Clara, CA, has 15 employees, and has raised $6 million dollars to date.
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Impulse Labs
Impulse Labs is building a high performance electric stove.
Impulse Labs is located in San Francisco, CA, has 16 employees, and has raised $25 million dollars to date.
The 2022 Version Of 50 Hardware Startups
Aerospace Hardware Startups
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Aerovel
Aerovel provides Small Tactical Unmanned Aerial Systems (STUAS) to the US military.
Aerovel is located in White Salmon, WA, has 20 employees, and has raised $22 million dollars to date.
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Spartan
Spartan Radar uses uses machine learning and edge-processing to improve existing radar performance to provide a robust, all-weather, high-resolution sensor to support safe commercialization of L2+ autonomous mobility.
Spartan is located in Los Alamitos, CA, has 30 employees, and has raised $25 million dollars to date.
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ThrustMe
ThrustMe is a deep tech company that designs miniaturized aerospace thrusters for small satellites.
ThrustMe is located in Paris, France, has 20 employees, and has raised $4.7 million dollars to date. -
Elroy Air
Elroy Air is developing an autonomous cargo aircraft with the goal of same day delivery worldwide.
Elroy Air is located in San Francisco, CA, has 50 employees, and has raised $49 million dollars to date.
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Bye Aerospace
Bye Aerospace is focusing on creating solar powered and electric aircraft.
Bye Aerospace is located in Englewood, CO, has 80 employees, and has raised $47 million dollars to date.
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Phase Four
Phase Four is a disruptive provider of next generation electric propulsion (EP) solutions for small satellites.
Phase Four is located in El Segundo, CA, has 30 employees, and has raised $40 million dollars to date.
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REGENT
REGENT builds all-electric seagliders for fast, safe, and low-cost coastal transportation.
REGENT is located in Burlington, MA, has 25 employees, and has raised $34 million dollars to date. -
Vartega
Vartega is a technology development company specializing in the carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic recycling process.
Vartega is located in Golden, CO, has 10 employees, and has raised $16 million dollars to date.
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Whisper Aero
Whisper Aero, led by Mark Moore, is developing the next generation of battery-electric version of a general aviation aircraft.
Whisper Aero is located in Crossville, TN, has 7.5 employees, and has raised $15 million dollars to date.
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Dash Systems
DASH Systems is a tech company developing hardware and software to enable precision airdrop deliveries.
Dash Systems is located in Hawthorne, CA, has 20 employees, and has raised $9 million dollars to date.
Clean Tech Hardware Startups
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Air Company
Air Company is developing carbon conversion technology that transforms carbon dioxide into impurity-free alcohols.
Air Company is located in New York, NY, has 38 employees, and has raised $30 million dollars to date.
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Electriq Power
Electriq Power has developed a premier smart home battery storage solution for homes and small businesses.
Electriq Power is located in San Leandro, CA, has 23 employees, and has raised $31 million dollars to date.
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CarbonBuilt
CarbonBuilt's revolutionary Reversa process prevents carbon dioxide emissions from reaching the atmosphere by storing them in concrete.
CarbonBuilt is located in Los Angeles, CA, has 8 employees, and has raised $10 million dollars to date.
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HydraCell
HydraCell provides high-performance, positive displacement pumps without a diaphragm, allowing them to last significantly longer than traditional pumps.
HydraCell is located in Melbourne, Australia, has 19 employees, and has raised $6 million dollars to date.
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Terra CO2
Terra CO2 is developing a proprietary and scalable solution for eco-friendly, general-use alternative cementitious material.
Terra CO2 is located in Golden, CA, has 40 employees, and has raised $14 million dollars to date.
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SunDensity
SunDensity develops nano-optical coatings to improve solar efficiency by downshifting UV rays.
SunDensity is located in Rochester, NY, has 31 employees, and has raised $10 million dollars to date.
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Aeroseal
Aeroseal has developed an advanced formulation for sealing holes in air ducts and vents, increasing building efficiency substantially.
Aeroseal is located in Miamisburg, OH, has 160 employees, and has raised $30 million dollars to date.
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Carbon Conversions
Carbon Conversions recycles carbon fiber for use in high performance materials.
Carbon Conversions is located in Lake City, SC, has 10 employees, and has raised $26 million dollars to date.
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Machina Labs
Machina Labs is a developer and manufacturer of robots intended to automate metal forming and fabrication processes.
Machina Labs is located in Chatsworth, CA, has 16 employees, and has raised $15 million dollars to date.
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Boox
Boox is a reusable container company focusing on zero-waste shipping.
Boox is located in Petaluma, CA, has 8 employees, and has raised $12 million dollars to date.
Construction Hardware Startups
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Abodu
Abodu provides well-designed backyard homes, constructed offsite, and installed rapidly in homeowner backyards.
Abodu is located in Redwood City, CA, has 24 employees, and has raised $40 million dollars to date.
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Blokable
Blokable is a Vertically Integrated Modular developer expanding prosperity and equity by building high-quality, low-cost, connected housing at scale.
Blokable is located in Sacramento, CA, has 30 employees, and has raised $31 million dollars to date.
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XYZ Reality
XYZ Reality is disrupting the construction industry with a unique Augmented Reality solution that is able to reduce construction costs by up to 20%.
XYZ Reality is located in Clerkenwell, UK, has 90 employees, and has raised $36 million dollars to date.
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Rugged Robotics
Rugged Robotics tackles the challenge of field layout, and replaces slow, error-prone, manual layout with an autonomous vehicle that marks fully-coordinated A/E designs directly onto unfinished floors.
Rugged Robotics is located in Austin, TX, has 13 employees, and has raised $12 million dollars to date.
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Plant Prefab
Plant builds custom architectural homes, empowering individuals, developers, and architects with a faster, higher quality, and more sustainable ways to build.
Plant Prefab is located in Rialto, CA, has 50 employees, and has raised $45 million dollars to date.
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Connect Homes
Connect Homes is a modern home design firm offering affordable, factory constructed, modular homes and complete assembly and completion services.
Connect Homes is located in Los Angeles, CA, has 26 employees, and has raised $50 million dollars to date.
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IndieDwell
IndieDwell aims to build modular homes for affordable housing developers.
IndieDwell is located in Pueblo, CO, has 30 employees, and has raised $11 million dollars to date.
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Aedetive
Aedetive uses novel and mobile concrete 3D printing with structural elements for construction applications.
Aedetive is located in Norderstedt, Germany, has 10 employees, and has raised $8 million dollars to date.
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Green Canopy NODE
Green Canopy NODE is developing off site manufacturing of sustainable and healthy homes for low income housing.
Green Canopy NODE is located in Seattle, WA, has 30 employees, and has raised $20 million dollars to date.
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Jupe
Jupe's mission is to make beautiful and dignified shelter instantly deployable onto any accessible piece of land.
Jupe is located in Torrance, CA, has 6 employees, and has raised $13 million dollars to date.
Electric Vehicles Hardware Startups
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ATLIS
Atlis Motor Vehicles is building an electric vehicle technology platform for heavy and light duty work trucks.
ATLIS is located in Mesa, AZ, has 30 employees, and has raised $20 million dollars to date.
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Delfast
Delfast produces unique electric bikes that are exceptional in their range, power and speed.
Delfast is located in Whittier, CA, has 22 employees, and has raised $50 million dollars to date.
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Navier
Navier is developing the the longest range, most advanced electric speedboat with hydrofoil technology.
Navier is located in San Francisco, CA, has 14 employees, and has raised $5 million dollars to date.
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FireFly Automatix
FireFly manufactures fully automated, self-propelled turfgrass harvesters and parts.
FireFly Automatix is located in Salt Late City, UT, has 9 employees, and has raised $12 million dollars to date.
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Panhwar
Panhwar is developing the world's first all-electric self-charging luxury business jet, designed especially for business owners, large corporations and private charter companies.
Panhwar is located in Heber City, UT, has 8 employees, and has raised $10 million dollars to date.
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Bollinger Motors
Bollinger Motors is developing all electric commercial chassis cabs and platforms for electric trucks.
Bollinger Motors is located in Oak Park, MI, has 50 employees, and has raised $10 million dollars to date.
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Auto Motive PowerAuto Motive Power
Auto Motive Power is an energy management company that specializes in charging and battery management systems (BMS).
Auto Motive Power is located in Santa Fe Spring, CA, has 90 employees, and has raised $9 million dollars to date.
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Silicon Mobility
Silicon Mobility is a full stack technology player powering control solutions for more efficient EVs.
Silicon Mobility is located in Valbonne, France, has 60 employees, and has raised $21 million dollars to date.
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Soelect
Soelect Inc develops advanced solid state battery components to power the next generation of electric vehicles, power tools and mobile electronics.
Soelect is located in Greensboro, NC, has 14 employees, and has raised $13 million dollars to date.
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SparkCharge
SparkCharge makes modular, portable, DC chargers for EVs that can be taken anywhere.
SparkCharge is located in Somerville, MA, has 40 employees, and has raised $16 million dollars to date.
BioTech Hardware Startups
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Orchid Biosciences
Orchid is a reproductive technology startup that is capable of detecting rare genetic disorders.
Orchid Biosciences is located in San Francisco, CA, has 4 employees, and has raised $4.5 million dollars to date.
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Newomics
Newomics is an early-stage biotechnology company that commercializes innovative and integrative platforms and solutions for personalized healthcare.
Newomics is located in Berkeley, CA, has 10 employees, and has raised $12 million dollars to date.
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Primmune Therapeutics
Primmune Therapeutics is harnessing innate immunities to treat cancer and viral infections.
Primmune Therapeutics is located in San Diego, CA, has 10 employees, and has raised $40 million dollars to date.
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Boragen
Boragen is working to provide novel pharmacophores and drug modalities to address unmet therapeutic needs.
Boragen is located in Durham, NC, has 13 employees, and has raised $17 million dollars to date.
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Vaxess Technologies
Vaxess engineers novel technologies that uniquely engage the human immune system, enabling improved efficacy and simplified access for vaccines.
Vaxess Technologies is located in Cambridge, MA, has 35 employees, and has raised $35 million dollars to date.
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IVIVA Medical
IVIVA Medical is a developer of autologous tissue constructs designed to overcome and manage end-stage renal diseases.
IVIVA Medical is located in Woburn, MA, has 14 employees, and has raised $14 million dollars to date.
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Nabla Bio
Nabla Bio is an autoverse platform of proprietary biologically informed machine learning that co-develops antibody drugs.
Nabla Bio is located in Boston, MA, has 8 employees, and has raised $11 million dollars to date.
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Chameleon Biosciences
Chameleon Biosciences is transforming gene therapy with a re-dosable, AAV based gene therapy.
Chameleon Biosciences is located in Berkeley, CA, has 11 employees, and has raised $11 million dollars to date.
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Resonant Therapeutics
Resonant's scalable tumor microenvironment platform accelerates therapeutic and target discovery against the most aggressive cancers.
Resonant Therapeutics is located in Houston, TX, has 6 employees, and has raised $7 million dollars to date.
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Novoron Bioscience
Novoron develops new therapeutic approaches to address neurological damage or disease in the central nervous system (CNS)..
Novoron Bioscience is located in San Diego, CA, has 9 employees, and has raised $3 million dollars to date.