Hardware & IoT Startups

Humanoid robotics rely on bulky, expensive geared actuation systems that limit dexterity, compactness, and affordability.

San Francisco, California

Surgical soft tissue repairs often fail as sutures cut through tissue or mesh at anchor points, causing pain, dehiscence, hernia recurrence, and reoperations.

The deck identifies a significant compliance gap in the handling of anhydrous ammonia across 23,000–28,000 U.S. facilities, highlighting the lack of adequate compliance infrastructure and the risks...

Low-cost autonomous drones (including sea drones) are reshaping warfare and maritime security, creating asymmetric threats for navies and global trade routes (e.g., Red Sea disruptions).

The problem is clearly defined as the lack of privacy in current smart home devices, which are seen as surveillance tools due to their constant data collection and cloud dependency.

Prosper, Texas

Smart home assistants act as surveillance devices: always-listening microphones, cloud-dependent storage, and no user control over data.

Smartwatches today are notification mirrors and shrunken phone UIs that cannot take real actions, leading to lost productivity.

Colorado

Unreliable, extensive, expensive powder feedstock testing for metal additive manufacturing causing high failure rates and waste.

New York, NY

We don’t remember as well as we think. Traditional media (photos, voicemails) lose voices, laughs, and unique storytelling; by the time we try to preserve someone (e.g., after illness or death), it’s...

Traditional PERS devices (pendants, wristbands) are stigmatized, often unworn, and unreachable during emergencies; tens of millions face daily emergency risk without reliable response.

Houston, TX

Ceiling fan blades accumulate dust, allergens, pet dander and are hazardous to clean (risk of falling).

Smartwatches today are phone clones on a tiny screen—no real actions, just notifications and friction that hurts productivity.

New York City, NY

Multi-family building owners face high water costs, poor communal laundry experience, and many buildings lack infrastructure for in-unit washers/dryers.

The deck identifies the problem of excessive reliance on phones and screens for payments, which impacts health and security.

Dover, DE

Fleets face significant costs, downtime, and fatalities due to accidents driven by driver fatigue, stress and undetected vehicle issues. Traditional fleet systems lack integrated driver health and...

Fragmented, inflexible lighting market forcing compromises on price, design, installation, and functionality.

Stroud, Oklahoma

Widespread non-compliance with OSHA PSM requirements at facilities handling ammonia; lack of integrated physical-to-digital compliance solutions.

Austin, TX

Family and professional caregivers lack real-time situational awareness and tools to keep elderly or cognitively impaired loved ones safe, especially those at risk of wandering or falls. Traditional...

Kentucky

Large number of lost or stolen handguns annually (500k–700k). Everyday carry increases risk of loss/theft ~300x. Lost/stolen guns are often used in crime.

Austin, Texas

Pest control operators waste time and money on manual trap-check routes; labor and fuel costs and compliance requirements drive need for remote verification.

Victoria, BC

Current Earth observation approaches face trade-offs: lack of target recognition with SAR and limited movement intelligence; high latency for wide-swath imagery; narrow-swath imagery requires high...

Lusaka

The deck does not explicitly state a specific problem but implies a need for investment in asset-backed opportunities with predictable cash flow and rapid capital recovery.

Oxygen delivery for COPD is outdated: bulky tanks and concentrators limit mobility and accessibility for patients requiring long-term supplemental oxygen.

Modern wars show massive damage from drones (FPV, Shahed, loitering). Current defense is too expensive, too slow, and not scalable. Europe and Ukraine urgently need a cost-effective, autonomous...

Madison, WI

Holiday retail lacks brand loyalty and is dominated by generic products from big-box and online retailers; traditional photography experiences are expensive and inconvenient; major e-commerce...

Recyclers lack the knowledge and automation to capture value from the $250B resale market; rising labor costs are making manual sorting unsustainable.

Los Angeles, California

Ubiquitous cord clutter, incompatible adapters, electrical hazards, and heavy metal waste from wired power systems.

Domestic adoption of humanoid robots will require durable, protective apparel and monitoring to prevent wear-and-tear and ensure safe, reliable household use.

Austin, TX

Existing meditation apps have poor retention for high-stimulation generations; users abandon within days.

TX

Traditional metal antennas and EMI shielding are heavy, limited at higher frequencies, and subject to corrosion; customers need lighter, higher-performance alternatives.

Nairobi, Nairobi

Millions of Kenyans lack affordable internet; mobile data is expensive and fixed ISPs skip underserved areas.

The problem is not explicitly stated but can be inferred as the need for advanced, cost-effective, and scalable orbital data centers to support global data demands.

Bogota, COL

Professional athletic footwear in Colombia is expensive and inaccessible; many buyers resort to low-quality replicas with poor durability and no technological support.

New York, NY

Fast transportation (planes/helicopters) is expensive and highly regulated; slower options (ships) are too slow, creating cost and time inefficiencies for logistics, business travel, and services.

Professional athletic footwear in Colombia is expensive and inaccessible; low-quality replicas dominate.

Pet owners lack real-time, continuous health monitoring and data-driven insights for early detection and preventative care; pet care services are fragmented and pet insurance adoption is low.

Payments are heavily tied to phones and smartwatches; consumers want to reduce screen time and carry fewer devices.

London, United Kingdom

Chronic diseases affect 1 in 3 adults globally, with significant health and economic burden. Existing health apps are fragmented and fail to provide comprehensive care.

Tallahassee, FL

Accumulation of pathogens, epigenetic drift, and variability from manual propagation creating a yield ceiling.

No existing action cameras can be used accessory-free for comfortable, safe first-person capture in contact sports.

Proliferation of hostile UAVs/drones and lack of effective autonomous counter-drone systems threaten U.S. and allied forces and critical infrastructure.

Antibody and biologic manufacturing is constrained by Protein A purification using aging resin column technology, leading to low productivity, high costs, complex operations, and slow throughput.

Buildings and cities overlook the clean power potential in existing water systems. There is a need for decentralized, always-on clean energy to reduce fossil fuel dependence and costs.

Columbia, MO

Hobby farmers and backyard gardeners often neglect watering plants or monitoring animal infrastructure (e.g., electric fences, chicken coops) leading to stress and loss of animals/plants.

Reusable packaging programs suffer from excessive loss, low cycle counts per year, and early scrap, driving high costs for customers amid supply chain resilience needs, compliance pressures (FSMA...

Toronto, Ontario

High transaction fees (up to ~4%) and slow settlement times (days) that hurt SMB cash flow and profits.

Eldoret

Satellites exhaust fuel and end mission life; no tools exist to design propellantless propulsion chips.

Naya Raipur, Chhattisgarh

Slow, error-prone retail checkout processes leading to long queues, abandoned carts, higher labor costs and limited inventory visibility.

Dallas, Texas

Grid capacity and congestion; rising electrical loads from electrification and EVs; slow and expensive traditional grid upgrades.

Dalton, TX

Public safety personnel (law enforcement, military, private security, industrial workers) face rising violence and on-the-job injuries. Existing body armor is largely non-instrumented and lacks...

Carrboro, NC

Large volumes of flared & vented methane; current methanol production is energy-intensive and costly; maritime decarbonization increases demand for low-carbon methanol.

AI and advanced computing require more powerful and energy-efficient semiconductors, but current industry is limited by the size of interconnect wires (20 micron), limiting performance and efficiency.

Houston, TX

Sensors today are limited by low surface-area materials, leading to lower sensitivity and potential failures in critical systems (e.g., Deepwater Horizon, Boeing 737 MAX). There is growing demand for...

Battery-grade graphite demand is outpacing supply; recyclers have residual graphite that is underutilized or disposed at cost.

In emergencies, first responders often lack medical context; people with dementia/special needs/chronic conditions may be unable to communicate; caregivers worry about wandering, collapse, or panic;...