The Hardware Cup, a pitch contest for early-stage hardware startups hosted by AlphaLab Gear, is celebrating its fifth year and touring seven American cities — including D.C.
The goal? “To find and highlight the most promising physical products startups in the nation,” a competition spokesperson said in an email to Inno.
Each city’s winner (D.C., Pittsburgh, Boston, Atlanta, Boulder, San Jose and Chicago) will get $3,000 in cash and other prizes, as well as an opportunity to win a $50,000 convertible-debt investment from Startbot VC at the International Finals in May. Five other finalists from across the globe will join them.
Last year’s grand prize winner was Boulder, Colo.-based Somatic Labs, a Techstars grad that’s working to develop “a future without screens.”
Companies hoping to follow in Somatic Labs’ footsteps must have a physical product component to their work, such as food, fashion, robotics, IoT devices or health/medical tools. Additionally, startups do not need to be in the seven featured cities to participate. In fact, the Hardware Cup offers a travel stipend; applicants are encouraged to select the city that’s nearest to them.
“The Hardware Cup was the first national pitch competition for hardware startups alone,” said the competition coordinator, Leah Simoncelli.
“With that, we have cultivated a large network of investors, experts and alumni that are sincerely invested in helping startups prosper. We are focused on the Hardware Community as a whole and providing people with meaningful connections. We have seen so many startups – even if they did not win their competition – connect with a judge, expert or investor one-on-one at our events.”
The District's Hardware Cup will take place Feb. 7 at Alley Powered by Verizon, and applications for the competition close Jan. 27.
