What Hardware Investors Want For

2018 and what they

Don’t

Today, hardware startups need less

time and capital to build products,

and valuable applications abound

Old vs New Hardware

Startups

Consumer Devices

Finding a ‘10x advantage’

and making a consumer device

a ‘must-have’ remains challenging

Source: Black Mirror

To rid our world of inefficiencies and create new business models. B2B products are often ‘must-haves’

Enterprise And

Industry IoTSource: RockMass Technologies

Mining walls analysis

Devices Saving Lives

Using body-sensing data, or even

“digital therapies”DATA

The Health Value Chain

Opening Eyes On Startup

Hospitals / insurers /pharma companies

seeing the value in consumer health hardware, including

“digital therapies”Photo: Flow Neuroscience (depression treatment)

With the right economics, prototyping tools that double as production tools could speed up development, boost local manufacturing and open up the ‘long tail’ of hardware.

Tools For Prototyping

& Production

Source: WAZER desktop water jet

Humanoid Robots

Apologies to SciFi fans: a humanoid robot

shape is rarely suitable and cost effective.

ATMs and washing machines had no need

for arms, legs or a face.

The Atlas robot can perform backflips (Source: Boston Dynamics)

Robots that we barely notice, doing Dirty, Dull

and Dangerous jobs.

Some might grow as franchises across cities.

RaaS (Robot-as- a-Service)

Source: Avidbots (commercial cleaning robots)

Long-Lasting Batteries

Or a breakthrough in energy harvesting.

Power remains a bottleneck for mobile

devices and IoT.

This would help transform huge sectors such as transport and health care.

Easier & Faster

RegulationsPhoto: Autonomous Bus In Shenzhen

Chinese Innovation

Stop labeling it ‘copycat’,

when so much is happening now, even if not always

targeting Western users.

Photo: Mobike dock-less bike for rental

ABOUT HAX

HAX is the most active seed investor in hardware, part of the SOSV global fund.

We invest in Consumer & Health devices, Robotics, Enterprise and Industrial IoT

Source: Airbus