Top Hardware + Software Startups in 2027

Autonomists help the world be more productive. This new world of hybrid workplaces presents challenges that traditional furniture cannot solve. That’s why Autonomous integrates collaborative and organizational software into ergonomic hardware, to create offices that are as dynamic as the people using them. Autonomous currently powers 130,000 businesses and 1,000,000 individuals across the globe. Today, we’re helping these people successfully transition to flexible work environments. And to do that, we’re defining what those environments are. Our mission has stayed the same over the years – empower people to do their best work and feel their best selves. Join us if you want to build tools for the new world of work. Join us if you want to put these tools in the hands of people who are waiting for them.

Aura connects people around the world through a brilliant photo sharing experience. Snap, share and display pictures through our easy-to-use app and beautifully designed Wi-Fi frame. At our core, we’re a software company creating innovative products that deliver happiness daily. We’re on a mission to create a new kind of social media network and we’ve started with a digital frame which gets memories off your phone and into your life.

At Syook, we believe that the Internet of Things presents companies of all sizes with the opportunity to optimize their operations and achieve enormous savings, with minimum expense. Our flagship product, Syook InSite, gives businesses complete visibility into their operations, from the movement of people to the monitoring of assets. We believe that the operational improvements this technology will bring about could result in huge changes, helping industries make a successful transition to Industry 4.0. Syook InSite is a highly scalable, modular and configurable IoT Platform that can be used for solving a variety of problems that are prevalent in the industry. It works out-of-the-box and clients can realize cost savings from day 1.

Aperia is unlocking a new era of efficiency & profitability for commercial vehicle fleets, by developing innovative hardware & analytics solutions. Inventors of the award-winning Halo™ Automatic Tire Inflator, Aperia saves fleets thousands of hours of down-time every week and reduces the environmental impact of the freight industry. Join us as we expand our product offering and take the next steps on our journey toward bringing the backbone of our economy into the automation age.

Markforged transforms manufacturing with the most affordable 3D metal and carbon fiber printers capable of producing parts tough enough for the factory floor. Engineers, designers, and manufacturing professionals all over the world rely on Markforged metal and composite printers for tooling, fixtures, functional prototyping, and high-value end-use production. Founded in 2013 and based in Watertown, MA, Markforged has about 300 employees globally, with $137 million in both strategic and venture capital. Markforged was recently recognized by Forbes in the Next Billion-Dollar Startups list and listed as the tenth fastest-growing tech company in the US in the 2018 Deloitte Fast 500. To learn more about Markforged, please visit markforged.com.

Videri makes a digital CANVAS, the smartest and most energy efficient digital display on the market. A stunningly thin and beautiful device which is cloud connected and engineered for enterprise and commercial purposes. Our technology is on its third generation, deployed worldwide with leading brands. We invented a state-of-the-art digital Canvas—an elegant product that combines resilient hardware with paradigm-shifting cloud architecture, enabling our customers to manage their on-site content and deliver it remotely from anywhere in the world. Designed to scale infinitely, our intelligent Canvases do exactly what we envisioned: empower brands to re-imagine the way they promote their products, market their business, and engage their customers. At Videri, we believe that customer experience is paramount. We build things with meaning—for our customers. We hold ourselves accountable—for our customers. And, of course, we hire great people. We are diligent collaborators on a mission to inspire the world. If that sounds like you, we’d love to meet you.

Tombot makes robotic animals that transform the daily life of individuals, families and communities facing health adversities. Originally designed to meet the specific medical needs of seniors with dementia, Tombot Puppies have also been preordered for children with Autism, adults with high impact chronic pain, major depressive disorder, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and PTSD, and for long inpatient stays and arduous outpatient treatments at hospitals. Peer-reviewed studies show that robotic animals positively affect some users’ ability to cope with stress, anxiety, loneliness, depression and pain, reducing their need for psychotropic and opioid medications. Key Milestones and Metrics: • Completion of our 5th generation prototype and 3rd round of customers studies with 100s of seniors with dementia • Over 3,900 preorder and waitlist customers • Member of StartX: Stanford-funded startup accelerator program • Member of the Canadian Creative Destruction Lab accelerator program • Member of Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles accelerator program (CTIP) • Large-scale clinical trials in development with Children’s Hospital and the University of Southern California to demonstrate reduced stress, anxiety and pain for pediatric hospital inpatients • Large scale study in development with the LAC-USC Hospital Burn Unit to demonstrate reduced stress, anxiety, and pain for pediatric burn patients • Major national and international media coverage • Winner 2019 RoboBusiness Pitchfire competition • Filed multiple trademark, design and provisional utility patent applications • U.S. TAM: $9.0B (seniors with dementia plus mild cognitive impairment)

Owl Labs is the creator of the Meeting Owl, a 360° smart video conferencing camera that sits in the center of the table and uses robotics algorithms to automatically highlight different people as they talk. After launching the product in June 2017, thousands of companies already have purchased the Meeting Owl, saying it offers the most natural and inclusive meeting experience they’ve ever seen.

Ayla Networks provides the industry’s first Agile IoT Platform, accelerating development, support, and ongoing enhancements of connected products for the Internet of Things. Ayla’s software fabric runs across devices, cloud, and apps to create secure connectivity, data analytics, and feature-rich customer experiences. Offered as a platform-as-a-service (PaaS), Ayla’s flexibility and modularity enables rapid changes to practically any type of device, cloud, and app environment.

Entrupy aims to fight the global problem of counterfeits to become the de-facto standard for instant authentication. Entrupy is a hardware-enabled SaaS company that uses computer vision algorithms and microscopy to bring trust to transactions of high-value physical goods. Currently in use by thousands of secondary resellers and marketplaces worldwide, Entrupy provides the only scalable technology capable of authenticating luxury products from brands such as Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Hermès, among others. The service launched in 2016, following four years of research led by Ashlesh Sharma, Vidyuth Srinivasan and Lakshminarayanan Subramanian, Professor at New York University. Investors include DG Lab Fund, deep learning pioneer and Facebook AI Research (FAIR) director, Yann LeCun, serial entrepreneur and investor Zach Coelius, cloud computing pioneer and Google VP of Infrastructure Eric Brewer, and Japanese venture capital firm, Accord Ventures.