Hardware Club, the self-described “world’s first scaling platform for hardware startups,” has raised its first venture funding of $28 million to invest in startups that have joined its community. The money was raised from Foxconn, Crédit Mutuel Arkéa, and Mistletoe among several others.
The vision of Hardware Club remains the same: to help hardware startups around the world build innovative products and technologies and scale globally. But everything now is on a much bigger scale considering their new funding closures.
Launched in 2014, Hardware Club developed a community of hardware startups that could help each other succeed. Then, it bring in major partners including Amazon and Foxconn to help club members build and increase their business to scale globally providing financing and support on manufacturing and distribution.
Originally based in Paris, it now has offices in Tokyo and San Francisco. Nearly 300 startups have joined the club and share tips and recommendations with each other. While the club has a good number of members, acceptance into the community is like acceptance into an Ivy League. Less than 10% get in.
To date, Hardware Club has negotiated over 100 partnerships worldwide with distributors and supply chains including Harrods, Flex, and Fnac. The distribution system cover over 20,000 stores. Being part of this community makes it much easier for startups to negotiate deals than on their own. As of December, having released seed funding checks for $100,000, Hardware Club is being restructured as a venture capital firm with the power to invest millions in startups.
Barbara Belvisi who started Hardware Club with Alexis Houssou said, “Our goal was always to build a new venture capital approach. There is a community in terms of how we can help startups and how we can make them succeed.”
Hardware Club has already invested in Reach Robotics, Aryballe, Print, and Blocks among others. The new round of funding will only help the company take its club members to the next level of innovation and hardware disruption in years to come.
Danni White is the digital content manager for TechFunnel.com.
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