Bolt.io
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Supporting early stage start-ups with design thinking and prototyping
Key facts
- Bolt¹ is a seed-stage venture-capital fund designed to address the unique needs of early-stage start-ups operating at the intersection of hardware and software.
- Companies in Bolt’s portfolio receive capital, support from their world-class engineering team and help with high-volume manufacturing.
Uniqueness
- Bolt offers companies access to two prototyping shops with over $20 million of equipment, offering capabilities such as 3D printing and quality control.
- Knowledge in the field of hardware and engineering.
- Bolt helps companies in prototyping, iteration processes, and de-risking manufacturing – the overall effect is to enable faster innovation cycles.
Value
- Shipped over 70 million units of 150+ SKUs of hardware products.
- Bolt invests up to $500,000 in early stage start-ups at the intersection of hardware and software.
- Bolt has developed over 30 successful hardware products. e.g. Petnet, DipJar and Kuvee.
Approach
- Bolt engineers help their start-ups plan in the design phase. Bolt also uses its partnership with Dragon Innovation in China to help execute on manufacturing.
- Bolt is able to offer its partner companies a wide tool set including advice on the following: strategy, building a team, raising capital, product development, customer development, manufacturing, distribution and marketing.
Footnote
Source: www.bolt.io/work; WEF/Accenture Analysis
Bolt.io is one of more than 100 case studies identified as part of the World Economic Forum’s Digital Transformation of Industries initiative. An overview of the DTI program can be found here.