Bolt.io

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