HCVC

Hardware Club is a venture capital firm specializing in seed stage and start-up investments. The firm seeks to make investments in the hardware-related industry with a focus on digital health, artificial intelligence, new sensors, connected buildings, smart transportation, and consumer hardware. It is geographically agnostic. Hardware Club is based in Paris, France with additional offices in Taipei, Taiwan; Tokyo, Japan; and San Francisco, California.

Barbara Belvisi

Managing Partner

Alexis Houssou

Founder and Managing Partner

Aymerik Renard

General Partner

Jerry Yang

General Partner

61 past transactions

Automata

Series B in 2022
Automata is a deep-tech company that creates products that empower people to automate physical work. The company's product, Eva, is a lightweight and affordable robot arm built for professionals in a production line, in a lab, a home workshop or even in a classroom. People don't need to be technical experts to communicate with robots. The web-based software platform can be programmed by anyone, anywhere, any time, from any device, making it easy to reconfigure for a wide range of different tasks. Automata was founded on 2015 and is headquartered in London, England.

Aryballe Technologies SA

Seed Round in 2016
Aryballe Technologies was created in Grenoble/France by a team of scientists and entrepreneurs. As a technology platform their main objectives are to develop new generations of universal sensors which can be adapted to different applications. In parallel to their core hardware development activities they are also organized to handle the software + database development and full manufacturing of their sensors and devices.

Play Impossible

Venture Round in 2016
The Play Impossible Gameball™ is a multi-sport, mobile device-connected ball designed for indoor and outdoor recreational activities. The company has developed a smart, connected inflatable ball that looks completely normal from the outside but has a bevy of electronics inside — accelerator, barometer, microcontroller, ultracapacitor, etc. — and sends real-time data via Bluetooth to an accompanying iOS or Android smartphone app, which lets people play different games and record highlight videos. A charging stick gives the ball two hours of play in just 20 seconds.

Norbert Health

Seed Round in 2021
Norbert Health’s vision is to deliver the world’s first home medical pod, that monitors the health of families using contactless sensors - no wearables, no buttons, no physical interaction with a device. Our product senses key vital signs including heart rate, breathing rate and temperature, providing a real time and historical view of the users health. Our pod will also alert family members and caregivers to incidents and abnormalities such as falls, lack of activity, social interactions or erratic sleep patterns.

Gideon Brothers

Series A in 2021
Gideon Brothers develops autonomous, mobile, collaborative and modular robots for unstructured, indoor, human industrial environments. They are one of the largest robotics engineering companies in Central and Southeastern Europe. Founded in 2017, the company is headquartered in Zagreb, Croatia.

Gideon Brothers

Seed Round in 2019
Gideon Brothers develops autonomous, mobile, collaborative and modular robots for unstructured, indoor, human industrial environments. They are one of the largest robotics engineering companies in Central and Southeastern Europe. Founded in 2017, the company is headquartered in Zagreb, Croatia.

Bodyport Inc.

Series A in 2020
Bodyport Inc. manufactures sensor fitted weighing scales for cardiac patients. It offers Bodyport, a biomarker-driven virtual clinic for the prevention and management of heart disease. Its device measures blood pressure, heart rate, heart rate variability, arterial stiffness, and health assessment through a person’s feet. The company also provides online patient portal and educational materials. The company was incorporated in 2015 and is based in San Francisco, California.

Pulsa

Seed Round in 2020
Pulsa makes telemetry sensors that gives customers a real-time summary of all tracked inventory. Pulsa manufactures a differential pressure sensor for bulk and cryogenic gases, a high pressure sensor for cylinder gases, and weight sensors for hard goods (e.g., fasteners, medical supplies), chemicals, & cryogenic gases. Through purpose-built hardware and advanced machine learning, we can understand variable consumption and tell our customers when they actually need to replace or reorder inventory.

Qashier

Seed Round in 2020
Qashier provides smart point-of-sale solutions that help merchants digitize their businesses. Its flagship product is the Qashier Smart Terminal, a connected, multi-purpose device that combines a payments hub, powerful POS software, and a proprietary app store into one uniquely designed device. Qashier enables merchants to start, run, and grow successful stores with just one terminal on the counter. Qashier was founded in 2019 and is headquartered in Singapore.

Reach Robotics Limited

Seed Round in 2016
Reach Robotics is creating the next gaming platform by combining Robotics, Gaming and AR. This means video game characters in real life that appear to be alive and can engage in various game modes, unlocking lots of potentials. The robots they make are more than connected toys, they are consistently evolving entertainment platforms. Their flagship product, MekaMon, has propelled us to the forefront of consumer robotics and they continue to evolve to ensure the future is always within reach.

Giraffe360

Seed Round in 2020
Giraffe360 Limited manufactures virtual tour cameras for real estate companies. The company's camera, Girraffe360, offers virtual tours, photographs, and floor plans. The company offers cloud processing service, cloud data storage, and CMS platform for file management and analytic review. Giraffe360 Limited was incorporated in 2010 and is based in London, United Kingdom.

Bellwether Coffee

Series B in 2019
Bellwether Coffee Co. manufactures software based vent less electric roasters. Its products allows its customers to get access to an online bean marketplace, which can be used to order beans. The company’s roasters use a catalytic process to eliminate the harmful gases and need for extra ventilation, which needs to be installed in traditional coffee roasting. Bellwether Coffee Co. was founded in 2013 and is based in Berkeley, California.

Play Impossible

Seed Round in 2016
The Play Impossible Gameball™ is a multi-sport, mobile device-connected ball designed for indoor and outdoor recreational activities. The company has developed a smart, connected inflatable ball that looks completely normal from the outside but has a bevy of electronics inside — accelerator, barometer, microcontroller, ultracapacitor, etc. — and sends real-time data via Bluetooth to an accompanying iOS or Android smartphone app, which lets people play different games and record highlight videos. A charging stick gives the ball two hours of play in just 20 seconds.

Gideon Brothers

Series A in 2021
Gideon Brothers develops autonomous, mobile, collaborative and modular robots for unstructured, indoor, human industrial environments. They are one of the largest robotics engineering companies in Central and Southeastern Europe. Founded in 2017, the company is headquartered in Zagreb, Croatia.

Gideon Brothers

Seed Round in 2019
Gideon Brothers develops autonomous, mobile, collaborative and modular robots for unstructured, indoor, human industrial environments. They are one of the largest robotics engineering companies in Central and Southeastern Europe. Founded in 2017, the company is headquartered in Zagreb, Croatia.

Full Speed Automation

Seed Round in 2021
Full Speed Automation builds next-gen automation systems. Our goal is to liberate humans from low-value, repetitive tasks, and improve efficiencies for more progress. We work with a very disruptive approach to automation.

Cowboy SA

Series C in 2022
Cowboy SA designs and manufactures electric bicycles. The company also provides an application that features a live dashboard, navigation, GPS tracker, and ride statistics; a test ride service; and bicycle insurance options. It sells its products online. The company was founded in 2017 and is based in Brussels, Belgium.

Anello Photonics

Series A in 2021
Anello Photonics is founded by pioneers in silicon photonics and inertial navigation. The patented Anello SiPhOG gyroscope offers an affordable mass-market sensor with true Optical Gyroscope performance. The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley and funded by leading venture capital firms.

Norbert Health

Pre Seed Round in 2019
Norbert Health’s vision is to deliver the world’s first home medical pod, that monitors the health of families using contactless sensors - no wearables, no buttons, no physical interaction with a device. Our product senses key vital signs including heart rate, breathing rate and temperature, providing a real time and historical view of the users health. Our pod will also alert family members and caregivers to incidents and abnormalities such as falls, lack of activity, social interactions or erratic sleep patterns.

Span.IO

Seed Round in 2018
Span.IO, Inc. develops and supplies renewable energy products for homes. It offers smart electrical panels that replace the electrical panel to become the center for connected power in the homes. The company also provides The Span, an application that enables users to understand and control their home energy from anywhere and at any time; and is used for scheduling and get alerts. It serves homeowners through installers, technology providers, and energy companies. Span.IO, Inc. was founded in 2018 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Span.IO

Series A in 2021
Span.IO, Inc. develops and supplies renewable energy products for homes. It offers smart electrical panels that replace the electrical panel to become the center for connected power in the homes. The company also provides The Span, an application that enables users to understand and control their home energy from anywhere and at any time; and is used for scheduling and get alerts. It serves homeowners through installers, technology providers, and energy companies. Span.IO, Inc. was founded in 2018 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Alcatraz AI

Venture Round in 2020
Alcatraz AI replaces badging as an access point identification method by leveraging facial recognition, 3d sensing, and AI. The company builds a facial authentication platform using AI and 3D sensing to enable a highly secure and frictionless entry into physical locations. Alcatraz AI was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in California, USA.

Alcatraz AI

Venture Round in 2021
Alcatraz AI replaces badging as an access point identification method by leveraging facial recognition, 3d sensing, and AI. The company builds a facial authentication platform using AI and 3D sensing to enable a highly secure and frictionless entry into physical locations. Alcatraz AI was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in California, USA.

Augmenta

Series A in 2021
Augmenta started its operations at the start of 2017, in Athens, Greece, by George Varvarelis and Dimitris Evangelopoulos, both farmers and embedded systems engineers and offers an Artificial Intelligence based solution comprised of a hardware device and a web platform, to any farmer, anywhere in the world that wants to have the best possible efficiency for every inch of his land and ultimately increase his seasonal net income. Augmenta’s “Field Analyzer”, is a plug and play device that can be attached to any tractor and can determine the amount of fertilizers, fungicides and pesticides that every inch of the farm needs to reach to its full potential, all in real-time. Furthermore, Field Analyzer is capable of controlling agricultural machinery (e.g. fertilizer spreaders) also in real-time, applying the optimal amount of chemicals into every inch of the farm completely automatically and without the farmer lifting a finger. Finally, the farmer can use Augmenta’s field-viewer, the company’s easy to use web platform, to observe the progression of his field through visual data analytics which help him keep track of the results of Augmenta’s real time operation but also assist him on making data-driven, customized decisions for the future, in a farm level scale and not in a generic geographical (county or even state/country) level scale which is the norm today. Augmenta has completed successfully 2 years of pilots, in 24 fields having staggering results and is currently conducting data-based pilots with food companies like Barilla and partnered with NVIDIA for the development of its cutting edge deep learning device.

Flic

Seed Round in 2016
Shortcut Labs is a creator of wireless smart buttons that offers physical shortcuts to digital functions in mobile devices. Its first product is a wireless push button that launches a preconfigured task on the users’ phones whether the users are on the go, at home, or at work. Shortcut Labs’ buttons are sold in packs of two in retail and as single units on its website. It also creates apps for iOS and Android with many different functions, as well as an open API that provides support for the buttons in any app. Shortcut Labs was founded in 2013 by Pranav Kosuri, Tomas Ohlson, Joacim Westlund, and Amir Sharifat. It is headquartered in San Francisco, C.A.

BLOCKS

Seed Round in 2015
Blocks has built a sensor platform for the industrial workforce in the form of a modular wrist band. Plug-and-play sensors around the wrist enable the collection of biometric, environment and others kinds of data with a device that is 100% tailor built for each industrial client, whatever their sector. Contextual data insights such as workforce location in an emergency, their proximity to hazardous substances, biometric information related to their health, and real-time actionable metrics from surrounding machinery, can be compiled and processed to significantly improve safety and productivity.

Caper

Seed Round in 2019
Caper (caper.ai) focuses on compacting Amazon-Go's technology (image recognition, sensor fusion and artificial intelligence) into a smart shopping cart, allowing each shopper to throw her groceries into the cart and self-checkout without cashiers. The technology is looking to fundamentally transform physical retail and rapidly scale into existing grocery stores.

Cowboy SA

Series B in 2020
Cowboy SA designs and manufactures electric bicycles. The company also provides an application that features a live dashboard, navigation, GPS tracker, and ride statistics; a test ride service; and bicycle insurance options. It sells its products online. The company was founded in 2017 and is based in Brussels, Belgium.

Lima

Series A in 2014
Lima Technology, Inc. develops a device that enables users to store terabytes of files on computers, smartphones, and tablets. Its device is a combination of a hardware adapter and applications on computers, smartphones, and tablets. The company was incorporated in 2012 and is based in Newark, Delaware.

Valispace GmbH

Seed Round in 2020
Valispace GmbH develops a browser-based engineering software as a service platform that increases productivity in the development of complex hardware products. Its software provides administrative, budget, interface management, documentation, designing, tracking, echnical engineering data for developing satellites, rockets, and complex hardware products. The company was founded in 2015 and is based in Bremen, Germany.

Reach Robotics Limited

Series A in 2017
Reach Robotics is creating the next gaming platform by combining Robotics, Gaming and AR. This means video game characters in real life that appear to be alive and can engage in various game modes, unlocking lots of potentials. The robots they make are more than connected toys, they are consistently evolving entertainment platforms. Their flagship product, MekaMon, has propelled us to the forefront of consumer robotics and they continue to evolve to ensure the future is always within reach.

Gideon Brothers

Seed Round in 2019
Gideon Brothers develops autonomous, mobile, collaborative and modular robots for unstructured, indoor, human industrial environments. They are one of the largest robotics engineering companies in Central and Southeastern Europe. Founded in 2017, the company is headquartered in Zagreb, Croatia.

Amberbox Gunshot Detection

Seed Round in 2016
AmberBox provides instant gunshot detection, automating emergency processes to significantly reduce response time and remove human error, saving lives and mitigating liability. AmberBox detectors utilise a patented gunshot detection algorithm to respond immediately following a firearm discharge. With tri-factor authentication (percussion, audio and infrared), detectors are able to instantly determine a firearm signature with a near-zero false alarm rate. Upon activation, detectors alert first responders through our reporting network, and can integrate with other security systems, such as cameras, access control systems and mass notification to initiate.

Cowboy SA

Pre Seed Round in 2017
Cowboy SA designs and manufactures electric bicycles. The company also provides an application that features a live dashboard, navigation, GPS tracker, and ride statistics; a test ride service; and bicycle insurance options. It sells its products online. The company was founded in 2017 and is based in Brussels, Belgium.

Gideon Brothers

Seed Round in 2018
Gideon Brothers develops autonomous, mobile, collaborative and modular robots for unstructured, indoor, human industrial environments. They are one of the largest robotics engineering companies in Central and Southeastern Europe. Founded in 2017, the company is headquartered in Zagreb, Croatia.

Cowboy SA

Series A in 2018
Cowboy SA designs and manufactures electric bicycles. The company also provides an application that features a live dashboard, navigation, GPS tracker, and ride statistics; a test ride service; and bicycle insurance options. It sells its products online. The company was founded in 2017 and is based in Brussels, Belgium.

Augmenta

Seed Round in 2019
Augmenta started its operations at the start of 2017, in Athens, Greece, by George Varvarelis and Dimitris Evangelopoulos, both farmers and embedded systems engineers and offers an Artificial Intelligence based solution comprised of a hardware device and a web platform, to any farmer, anywhere in the world that wants to have the best possible efficiency for every inch of his land and ultimately increase his seasonal net income. Augmenta’s “Field Analyzer”, is a plug and play device that can be attached to any tractor and can determine the amount of fertilizers, fungicides and pesticides that every inch of the farm needs to reach to its full potential, all in real-time. Furthermore, Field Analyzer is capable of controlling agricultural machinery (e.g. fertilizer spreaders) also in real-time, applying the optimal amount of chemicals into every inch of the farm completely automatically and without the farmer lifting a finger. Finally, the farmer can use Augmenta’s field-viewer, the company’s easy to use web platform, to observe the progression of his field through visual data analytics which help him keep track of the results of Augmenta’s real time operation but also assist him on making data-driven, customized decisions for the future, in a farm level scale and not in a generic geographical (county or even state/country) level scale which is the norm today. Augmenta has completed successfully 2 years of pilots, in 24 fields having staggering results and is currently conducting data-based pilots with food companies like Barilla and partnered with NVIDIA for the development of its cutting edge deep learning device.

Span.IO

Series A in 2020
Span.IO, Inc. develops and supplies renewable energy products for homes. It offers smart electrical panels that replace the electrical panel to become the center for connected power in the homes. The company also provides The Span, an application that enables users to understand and control their home energy from anywhere and at any time; and is used for scheduling and get alerts. It serves homeowners through installers, technology providers, and energy companies. Span.IO, Inc. was founded in 2018 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Alcatraz AI

Seed Round in 2018
Alcatraz AI replaces badging as an access point identification method by leveraging facial recognition, 3d sensing, and AI. The company builds a facial authentication platform using AI and 3D sensing to enable a highly secure and frictionless entry into physical locations. Alcatraz AI was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in California, USA.

Keecker SAS

Seed Round in 2015
Keecker SAS develops a mobile robot for homes that projects movies, plays music, browses the Web, and captures sounds and images. Its robot displays images on various surfaces and projects sounds in 360 degrees. The company’s robot also provides users with home analytics, including temperature, humidity, CO2 level, and more; and allows them to check in and see their homes remotely for security purposes. Its robot works through smartphones. The company was founded in 2012 and is based in Paris, France.

Left Hand Robotics

Seed Round in 2018
Left Hand Robotics has developed the first commercial-class, self-driving snow clearing robot capable of removing snow from sidewalks and walkways. The SnowBot Pro is controlled and monitored remotely from an online management dashboard and uses GPS to follow a pre-programmed path. Its rotating brush clears a sidewalk from edge-to-edge in a single pass to meet even the highest standards.

Pulsa

Seed Round in 2018
Pulsa makes telemetry sensors that gives customers a real-time summary of all tracked inventory. Pulsa manufactures a differential pressure sensor for bulk and cryogenic gases, a high pressure sensor for cylinder gases, and weight sensors for hard goods (e.g., fasteners, medical supplies), chemicals, & cryogenic gases. Through purpose-built hardware and advanced machine learning, we can understand variable consumption and tell our customers when they actually need to replace or reorder inventory.

Bellwether Coffee

Series A in 2018
Bellwether Coffee Co. manufactures software based vent less electric roasters. Its products allows its customers to get access to an online bean marketplace, which can be used to order beans. The company’s roasters use a catalytic process to eliminate the harmful gases and need for extra ventilation, which needs to be installed in traditional coffee roasting. Bellwether Coffee Co. was founded in 2013 and is based in Berkeley, California.

PalleTech

Venture Round in 2017
PalleTech gives you better cargo monitoring and predictive analytics. Without added infrastructure, PalleTech tracks your cargo and its condition in real time and works directly with your pallet provider.

Aryballe Technologies SA

Series B in 2020
Aryballe Technologies was created in Grenoble/France by a team of scientists and entrepreneurs. As a technology platform their main objectives are to develop new generations of universal sensors which can be adapted to different applications. In parallel to their core hardware development activities they are also organized to handle the software + database development and full manufacturing of their sensors and devices.

BuffaloGrid

Seed Round in 2018
BuffaloGrid is a multi award-winning company with a mission to bring power and connect the next billion, helping frontier market smartphone users to use their phones more often and for more. We serve the billions of overlooked customers who with access to mobile digital services could improve their quality of life and business activities.

Reach Robotics Limited

Seed Round in 2015
Reach Robotics is creating the next gaming platform by combining Robotics, Gaming and AR. This means video game characters in real life that appear to be alive and can engage in various game modes, unlocking lots of potentials. The robots they make are more than connected toys, they are consistently evolving entertainment platforms. Their flagship product, MekaMon, has propelled us to the forefront of consumer robotics and they continue to evolve to ensure the future is always within reach.

Prynt Corp.

Seed Round in 2014
Prynt is the first ever instant camera case for smartphones. Just plug in your device, take a picture, and voila: get a beautiful photo in your hands within seconds. The case is simple — no ink, wifi or bluetooth — and is compatible with iOS and Android phones. Plus, when you take a photo with Prynt, their app embeds a video inside of it, giving you a creative new way to tell your story. Hold your phone over any printed picture and watch it come to life in augmented reality on screen!

Remedee

Series A in 2019
Remedee is a new concept of "e- drug" for pain management. This innovative wearable, is based on an breakthrough technology that stimulates the release of endorphins in the brain. After 6 years of research in the medical department of the French Army and at CEA-Clinatec, we demonstrated a significant reduction of pain perception and the feasibility of making this technology mobile and available to everyone. Remedee adresses the 20% of worldwide population suffering from chronic pain.

Automata

Series A in 2019
Automata is a deep-tech company that creates products that empower people to automate physical work. The company's product, Eva, is a lightweight and affordable robot arm built for professionals in a production line, in a lab, a home workshop or even in a classroom. People don't need to be technical experts to communicate with robots. The web-based software platform can be programmed by anyone, anywhere, any time, from any device, making it easy to reconfigure for a wide range of different tasks. Automata was founded on 2015 and is headquartered in London, England.

iskn

Seed Round in 2015
iskn is a consumer electronics company that develops and markets the slate for smart drawing. iskn is the leading pioneer in AUGMENTED INTERACTION thanks to its technology representing 24 international patents based on 60 years of deep tech R&D expertise in magnetometry at the world-renowned CEA LETI. The company’s primary mission consists in enriching the experience and facilitate interaction with the digital world by bringing back emotion through the use of day-to-day physical objects. This has already come to life by turning any pencil into a digital one with the widely adopted SLATE, and the yet to come disruptive REPAPER graphic tablet.

Caper

Series A in 2019
Caper (caper.ai) focuses on compacting Amazon-Go's technology (image recognition, sensor fusion and artificial intelligence) into a smart shopping cart, allowing each shopper to throw her groceries into the cart and self-checkout without cashiers. The technology is looking to fundamentally transform physical retail and rapidly scale into existing grocery stores.

Noke

Convertible Note in 2016
Nokē is reinventing commercial security by creating hardware and software solutions that do more than just secure your company’s assets. We are dedicated to simplifying security management while offering heightened control to better protect your employees, buildings and resources. Our intuitive analytics dashboard, wireless locks and integrated solutions offer a more advanced method of access control and asset tracking than any other. Nokē was founded by David Gengler and Cameron Gibbs and is headquartered in Lehi, Utah.

Play Impossible

Venture Round in 2018
The Play Impossible Gameball™ is a multi-sport, mobile device-connected ball designed for indoor and outdoor recreational activities. The company has developed a smart, connected inflatable ball that looks completely normal from the outside but has a bevy of electronics inside — accelerator, barometer, microcontroller, ultracapacitor, etc. — and sends real-time data via Bluetooth to an accompanying iOS or Android smartphone app, which lets people play different games and record highlight videos. A charging stick gives the ball two hours of play in just 20 seconds.

Cowboy SA

Seed Round in 2018
Cowboy SA designs and manufactures electric bicycles. The company also provides an application that features a live dashboard, navigation, GPS tracker, and ride statistics; a test ride service; and bicycle insurance options. It sells its products online. The company was founded in 2017 and is based in Brussels, Belgium.

Keecker SAS

Seed Round in 2017
Keecker SAS develops a mobile robot for homes that projects movies, plays music, browses the Web, and captures sounds and images. Its robot displays images on various surfaces and projects sounds in 360 degrees. The company’s robot also provides users with home analytics, including temperature, humidity, CO2 level, and more; and allows them to check in and see their homes remotely for security purposes. Its robot works through smartphones. The company was founded in 2012 and is based in Paris, France.