Hardware Startups funded by Y Combinator (YC) 2025

Flock Safety provides the first public safety operating system that empowers private communities and law enforcement to work together to eliminate crime. We are committed to protecting human privacy and mitigating bias in policing with the development of best-in-class technology rooted in ethical design, which unites civilians and public servants in pursuit of a safer, more equitable society. Our Safety-as-a-Service approach includes affordable devices powered by LTE and solar that can be installed anywhere. Our technology detects and captures objective details, decodes evidence in real-time and delivers investigative leads into the hands of those who matter. While safety is a serious business, we are a supportive team that is optimizing the remote experience to create strong and fun relationships even when we are physically apart. Our flock of hard-working employees thrive in a positive and inclusive environment, where a bias towards action is rewarded. Flock Safety is headquartered in Atlanta and operates nationwide. We have raised $150M in our Series E led by Tiger Global at a $3.5B valuation.

Pocket is a tiny AI device that lives on your phone and turns everything you say and hear into clear notes, action items, and search. We combine custom hardware, AI, and software to build the best note-taking experience for people who talk and move fast

Robotics is going to be one of the largest industries the world has ever seen, but right now teams have to build so much in house just to get something to move. Hlabs is making a plug-and-play ecosystem of robotic parts with simple opensource software libraries to reduce the complexity in building a robot. Hlabs is founded by Paul, a second time YC founder who also participated in the W21 batch with Mystic. He ran Mystic as CEO for 6 years. From the first launch in October 2025 over 40 robotics companies have placed orders for the actuator control product. Hlabs is targeting Q1 '26 for the release of several additional plug-and-play products including an Nvidia Jetson powered main board, a low cost expandable camera system, and wireless communication/video module to make every robot wireless out of the box.

Tensr is building fully autonomous robotic factories that make scaling hardware as effortless as scaling on AWS. We’re a group of Berkeley graduate robotics researchers who previously won a full scale autonomous IndyCar competition at 160mph.

Tornyol builds micro-drones that kill mosquitoes. We use smartphone microphones, car park assist sensors and some clever DSP and control to transform 40-gram toy drones into mosquito killers. Because these drones are so cheap and fast, we will lower the cost of mosquito control by 100x which will enable the eradication of mosquitoes from cities, saving more than a million people each year from Malaria, West Nile, Dengue, etc.

Norra helps nursing facilities manage equipment operations. Every year, ~$80 billion are spent on medical equipment like beds, concentrators, and wheelchairs. Nursing facilities continue to operate with zero visibility which leads to $15 billion in equipment waste annually. We use physical trackers and AI agents to eliminate this.

Airports are among the most data-rich yet information-poor environments in transportation. Thousands of radio transmissions, aircraft movements, and sensor signals occur every second, but these systems remain siloed. Most airfields still rely on manual logs and calls to understand what’s happening on the ground, creating blind spots that slow coordination and limit safety oversight. The result is a growing safety and efficiency gap. The FAA records four to five runway incursions every day, and over 90% of air traffic control facilities are operating below target staffing levels. Despite $20 billion in modernization programs like NextGen and Safety Management Systems, airports still lack a unified data backbone that connects communication, movement, and intent across the airfield. Stratus provides the missing layer of intelligence for airport and airside operations — unifying data, communication, and movement into one shared, real-time picture. For airports, this means faster decisions, clearer accountability, and safer, more efficient operations. For aviation as a whole, it’s the foundation for connected, data-driven infrastructure that can finally keep pace with modern airside complexity.

Telemetron is an AI-powered support platform tailored for hardware products (medical devices, consumer electronics, industrial hardware, robotics, and more). Our platform unifies ticketing, device diagnostics, order tracking, and product documentation into one intelligent system. Our AI agents connect directly to devices, APIs, and backend systems to deliver faster resolutions, smarter routing, and better support experiences.

Always-on intelligence and connectivity for Defense. Icarus builds autonomous, solar-powered aircraft that fly at 60,000 feet for weeks at a time, above the clouds harnessing the power of the Sun, but never too close. It’s the modern-day U-2 spy plane, except each costs $100K and is built by the thousands. The future of warfare is in the Stratosphere.

Our agents run hardware engineering tasks that normally take hours or days in just a few minutes, allowing engineers to process 100x more data and information. Our platform allows hardware engineers to orchestrate agents for tasks such as analyzing failures across entire test campaigns, pulling the right data and KPIs from their databases, checking how conditions (like temperature or load) affect performance and reliability, and then document findings in reports and dashboards.

At Pleom, we’re building AI hardware devices that everyday consumers can talk to — devices that understand your context and handle real-world tasks. We’re going head-to-head with OpenAI and io, moving faster to market and capturing mindshare first. Today, Pleom is a website. Tomorrow, it will be integrated into our family of hardware devices.

Automated hardware certification and testing. Reduce your team's compliance hours by 50x. Currently supporting FCC, ISED, CE, ASTM F963.

SigmanticAI is building an AI-native hardware development assistant that automates the entire RTL design flow, from natural language to synthesizable HDL and testbenches, inside a seamless VSCode fork. Powered by fine-tuned Verilog LLMs, reinforcement learning, and real compiler feedback, SigmanticAI iteratively refines code until it compiles and passes synthesis, no matter how complex the design. It’s like the Cursor for HDL design. In addition to code generation, SigmanticAI can generate token-level annotations and onboarding documents to accelerate ramp-up for new engineers. With support for both cloud and on-prem deployment, it integrates with existing EDA tools to dramatically reduce debug time, improve collaboration, and accelerate hardware design across teams

Built by former Tesla & SpaceX engineers, F4 is a platform that helps you catch and fix drawing compliance issues instantly. F4 ensures design engineers never release noncompliant drawings—and suppliers never misinterpret them. We help hardware teams eliminate costly scrap, rework, and miscommunication at the root. With a compliant drawing, F4 generates end-to-end drawing interpretations for standard definitions, inspection plan, and tolerance analysis application. F4 automatically interprets all GD&T symbols, datums, and notes based on the correct standards - no more second-guessing or misreading intent. Everyone from design to manufacturing sees the same definition, keeping teams aligned and avoiding costly miscommunication. F4 generates a complete inspection plan straight from the drawing, so quality teams know exactly what to measure, how, and where. This eliminates manual setup, reduces delays during first article inspection, and helps catch issues before they reach production. F4 gives engineers everything they need from the drawing to set up a reliable tolerance analysis, applicable features, and rule exceptions. By making it easy to bridge engineering drawings to tolerance analysis, teams can catch potential fit or function issues early - before parts are fabricated and assembled.

Embedder is a coding agent that can write, test, and debug firmware on both physical and simulated hardware. Supporting 20+ MCU/SoC platforms, it accelerates embedded systems development across semiconductors, automotive, medical devices, aerospace, IoT, and consumer electronics.

Flywheel AI converts any existing excavators for contractors to enable remote ops to increase safety and productivity, and use robotics context dataset to train autonomous policies.

Boost Robotics is building autonomous mobile manipulation robots to remotely perform manual tasks in data centers. The surge in AI applications is pushing data centers to scale faster than they can manage, leading to suboptimal operations and staffing shortages amid rising power and compute demands. We save data centers millions in insurance premiums and SLA violations by increasing the frequency of inspection and maintenance while reducing the time it takes to triage and address failures.

PowerMatrix provides the MOST efficient and compact next-generation high-performance power supplies for emerging technologies, such as GPUs, xPUs, AI server, datacenters, drones, EV, aerospace, etc. Based on patented circuit topology, embedded packaging, and novel magnetics, our power supply systems can reduce energy loss by up to 50%. We have developed several prototypes and are collaborating with world-leading customers.

What if every experiment you wanted to run could be modeled using AI? Godela is an AI-powered physics engine that gives engineers faster, cheaper replacement to simulations and physical prototypes. No set up, no wait. Just ask—and get simulation quality result.

Cascade Space is building a turn-key communications system for lunar and deep space missions. Our ground station network and integrated software tools work together to maximize uptime and availability, while reducing spacecraft iteration cycles from weeks to hours.

Steinmetz is an electric vehicle platform company based in San Francisco. We use new power electronics techniques to significantly improve power densities (kW/kg, kW/L) bringing down vehicle system costs and even unit costs. Our first products are Inverters/motor controllers with industry-leading power densities while remaining cost competitive.

Inversion Semiconductor is developing the next-generation chip fabrication machine, to create the most powerful chips 15x faster. Our vision is to reshore advanced chip fabrication capabilities in the West. We're building a lithography machine. Lithography uses light to pattern circuit features on silicon. We're scaling transistors to their physical limits by shrinking particle accelerators 1000x, to create a high power light source. Using our light source we will double transistor density for a given numerical aperture and 3x throughput.

Mentra is building the open source operating system for smart glasses. The smart glasses hardware is finally ready, so we're building the OS and app store to power the next computing platform.

Pickle is a personal, memory-based operating system, the missing layer of AI that continuously learns your real-world context, preferences, and intent, enabling AI to evolve with you and become truly proactive rather than reactive. Our system spans both software (Chat, our web-based creative intelligence app) and hardware (Pickle 1, our AI-powered AR glasses) to capture different layers of personal context. Together, they form the foundation of a real personal intelligence.

Adam is building AI CAD. It transforms text into parametric designs so engineering teams can ship 10x faster. Our mission is to eliminate the gap between engineering and reality so more great ideas come into existence.

Forge Automation runs software enabled factories that deliver custom metal parts in four days or less. Instead of mechanical engineers having to wait two to three weeks for their low volume CNC parts, they can simply upload a CAD model on our platform and we will ship it out in four days or less. We aim to give mechanical engineers the "Amazon experience" for custom metal parts.

Mobius is the safe spot market for electronic components like microcontrollers and capacitors. We help electronics manufacturers buy and sell chips quickly, safely & at market prices.

camfer is the AI CAD tool. Now, engineers can create parametric designs with natural language.

Autumn Labs delivers a developer-friendly platform for monitoring and managing modern manufacturing lines. Seamlessly integrating with robotic stations—automated test stations, robotic assembly cells, and industrial arms—it ensures full traceability, live data monitoring, and secure data transport. We prioritize streamlining factory operations, boosting production quality, and preventing supply chain disruptions, all while offering an effortless onboarding experience for engineers and manufacturers.

We build underwater data centers to cut power usage by up to 30%, operating GPUs cheaper and more sustainably. Our 1 MW capsule is being tested underwater in the SF Bay

Zetta is building the next NVIDIA, energy-efficient chips ("XPUs") for AI training and inference, offering superior speed and energy efficiency compared to traditional GPUs and TPUs. Our XPUs are reconfigurable, capable of optimizing the dataflow of each model, making them faster and more energy-efficient than the current SOTA chips on the market. This saves data centers *billions* in cooling and energy costs.

Diode automates circuit board design. We work with hardware companies to get them the PCBs they need, fast.

Sorcerer is deploying a global network of persistent airborne sensors to fuel advanced weather forecasting. Our high-altitude balloons collect 1000x more data than existing systems and are already used daily by meteorologists to track extreme weather across the US and Central America.

Saphira is the easiest way for hardware products to get safety certified and reach market faster, such as industrial robots and heavy machinery.

atopile is a new language to design electronic circuit boards with code. We replace point and click graphical interfaces with code to bring software level automation and reuse to the field of hardware design. Our project is open source on GitHub! https://github.com/atopile/atopile

nCompass is a platform for acceleration and hosting of open-source and custom AI models. We provide low-latency AI deployment without rate-limiting you. All with just one line of code.

We make Air Purifier and filters that is certified to eliminate COVID-19 and most other viruses and bacteria. Our technology is independently lab tested, EPA certified and FDA registered. Our air purifiers are already found in homes, businesses and government facilities around the world to help protect their customers and employees from airborne pathogens.

Metalware develops advanced firmware security solutions for critical infrastructure, protecting industries like aerospace, defense, automotive, telecom, and healthcare from cyber threats. Our product is an automated, intelligent binary fuzzer that enables organizations to efficiently discover and remediate security weaknesses in hardware products before deployment.

Hubble is building a global satellite network that any Bluetooth-enabled device can connect to, even without cellular reception. Our mission in life is to get a billion devices connected to the network and unlock a new era of human-machine collaboration.

Velontra is building a hypersonic space plane that can takeoff from anywhere in any weather. This horizontal takeoff increases launch reliability and enables customers to directly access any orbit. Our air-breathing propulsion system is up to 6 times more fuel efficient than any rocket, and uses oxygen from the air which creates thousands of pounds of additional payload capacity. We have millions in current government/commercial contracts and LOI’s. We have assembled a team of industry experts, government senior executives, and a NASA astronaut. The hypersonic space plane will work by taking off from any runway with a jet propulsion system. Next, it will climb to over 100,000’ and Mach 5. At this point, it will launch a 2nd stage rocket directly into the desired Low Earth Orbit. Velontra is “boldly going where no one has gone before.”

Integrated Reasoning builds efficient computer processors that are tailored to the memory access patterns of Karp's 21 NP-complete problems. We’re making it 100x - 10,000x faster to perform computations like scheduling airline pilots or optimizing packing layouts for shipping containers.

Enlightra develops mass-manufacturable fingertip-size multicolor lasers enabling ultrafast data communication and optical computing while providing up to 10x improvement in energy efficiency and cost reduction.

UNISON is building a unified reality headset to dive in and resurface from virtual worlds with new-found value. UNISON is a small team of passionate people from companies like Meta, Sony, Apple and research labs like the IARAI, based in the SF Bay Area and backed by some of the world’s best investors. Learn more about us, our product, and team here: in-unison.com.

1.2B lbs of fish are caught everyday yet as little as 1 in 3 fish make it to a plate — most of this waste arises because fish are suffocated on boats or electrocuted on farms. Suffocation and inaccurate electrocution create stress and so acidify meat, damage quality and significantly reduce shelf-life. Artisanal techniques in high-end sushi multiply shelf-life and taste but, because of the variation in fish, are difficult to perform in a mechanical fashion. Shinkei automates traditional techniques using robotics to provide long-lasting and delicious fish for farmers and harvesters at scale.

NearWave makes a handheld imaging device that helps physicians select the right therapy for their breast cancer patients. This prevents patients from suffering through months of side effects caused by unsuccessful treatments.

AirMyne is building machines to capture & remove carbon dioxide from ambient atmospheric air so it can be utilized or sequestered downstream. Our team is based in Berkeley, CA.

IoTFlows combines AI-powered hardware and software to give manufacturers real-time visibility into machine utilization, downtime, and workflow efficiency. Our plug-and-play platform analyzes data, generates actionable insights, and automates maintenance and operational tasks, helping teams optimize performance and achieve ROI in less than a month. Trusted by companies like Parker Hannifin, IoTFlows delivers high-margin, subscription-based value that scales seamlessly.

Innovative hardware teams use Cofactr to scale their electronic hardware from BOM through production, replacing spreadsheets and shelves with insights and on-demand infrastructure. We're a Y Combinator W22 company with growing revenue and backed with significant venture funding from VCs like Bain Capital Ventures.

Palitronica builds and deploys cutting-edge solutions to defend critical physical infrastructure and its supply chain. By using side-channel information from endpoints, Palitronica provides a safe attack detection capability retrofittable to critical systems.