$100,000
INITIAL INVESTMENT
50+
STARTUP GRADUATES
$100M+
RAISED BY PORTFOLIO COMPANIES
Startup CEO Testimonials
"We walked into NextFab with $5k, and walked out with $12-14 million and went into production with around 100 systems"
Charlie Andersen
CEO of Burro
"Partnering with NextFab was one of the best decisions we made early on. As founders new to hardware, NextFab provided us with the training, tools, and expertise to take our product from ideation to mass manufacturing within months"
Christopher Hariz
Founder of Hexmodal
Ideal Candidates
We invest at the intersection of hardware and software. While we’re open to receiving applications from anyone, our ideal team would have 2 co-founders, a physical prototype, a patented technology, and a good estimate of the market size.
Application
We accept applications on a rolling basis. Some of the most successful teams we've seen recently have raised over $150k in government grants and/or more than $250k in funding from private investors before they came to us.
Capital + Engineering
In addition to capital, we provide startups with access to seasoned hardware experts. We can serve as an advisor or get into the weeds and help you make key strategic product development choices that can set you on a path to success.
What differentiates us from other investors?
We are entirely focused on working with hardware startups and our state-of-the-art makerspace facility in South Philadelphia serves as a one stop shop for all their prototyping needs. The selected teams will get funding and direct access to NextFab’s Product Development staff. Think of them as an extension of your team. We’ll offer you advice, make introductions, and fill skill gaps or relieve bandwidth constraints that are preventing you from reaching development milestones. In addition to all of this, we’ll introduce you to mentors and experienced advisors, as well as our broader community of talented designers, artists, engineers, and entrepreneurs.
What are some common reasons for rejection?
We review every application we receive, but due to the large number of submissions, we do not have the bandwidth to provide feedback to companies that apply for funding. With that said, some of the most common reasons for rejection include the following: an application that is not hardware-specific (e.g., a social media app, SaaS application, etc.), solution where we don't have expertise (e.g., drones, artificial intelligence, machine learning, IT, medical and non-medical cannabis products, crypto, NFTs, etc.), small market size, no physical prototype, no intellectual property or product defensibility, not located in the area that we serve, solo-founder or a company that doesn’t have people working on the problem full-time.
What startups we want to see
Sectors
Clean technology, medical devices, agtech, IoT wearables, and robotics.
Stage
Angel, pre-seed or seed. Consider applying if you have raised anywhere between $2k and $1 million.
Location
We can only invest in US-based startups (preferably in the Mid-Atlantic and New England regions).
Deal Terms
Full Investment: Accepted startups receive an initial investment of up to $100,000. This is broken up into $60,000 in cash and $40,000 in in-kind support. We are using a post-money SAFE note, which converts into equity when you raise a qualified round of financing.
If your startup is in the middle of a round, we might consider joining on those terms.
Let’s Build Something—Together
Ready to share your idea with us? Tell us a few details about your hardware product. Whether you’re in the early stages with your startup or already have a functioning prototype, let’s talk!