Top Hardware Startups in 2026

Palo Alto Networks is the next-generation security company maintaining trust in the digital age by helping tens of thousands of organizations worldwide prevent cyber breaches. With our deep cybersecurity expertise, commitment to innovation, and game-changing Next-Generation Security Platform, customers can confidently pursue a digital-first strategy and embark on new technology initiatives, such as cloud and mobility. This kind of thinking and know-how helps customer organizations grow their business and empower employees all while maintaining complete visibility and the control needed to protect their critical control systems and most valued data assets. Our platform was built from the ground up for breach prevention, with threat information shared across security functions system-wide, and designed to operate in increasingly mobile, modern networks. By combining network, cloud and endpoint security with advanced threat intelligence in a natively integrated security platform, we safely enable all applications and deliver highly automated, preventive protection against cyberthreats at all stages in the attack lifecycle without compromising performance. Customers benefit from superior security to what legacy or point products provide and realize a better total cost of ownership.

Syntiant develops neural network processors for ultra-low power "edge" devices. We have working silicon, industry partnerships, and we are actively building new product capacities and categories enabled by our massive reduction in power requirements.

SmartERP, Sprout's software offering, consolidates customer segments to create streamlined e-waste disposition... and mines customer data for insights. With 200+ enterprise customers, that's a lot of data!

Sonos is a developer of wireless multi-room music systems for the home. The Sonos Multi-Room Music System is the first, wireless multi-room music system that plays all kinds of music and is able to control it. Sonos liberates the music stored on a computer so it can be enjoyed all over the house. In addition, by partnering with audio services like Audible.com, Last.FM, Napster, Pandora, RadioTime, Rhapsody, SIRIUS Internet Radio, and more, Sonos gives music lovers instant, computer-free access to millions of songs, thousands of radio stations, audiobooks, and more.

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)

TandemLaunch is a unique Canadian start-up foundry. We create cutting-edge technology companies based on research taken straight from major university labs. We focus on commercializing innovations in consumer electronics, hardware-enabled technologies, machine learning, and embedded systems, and operate all portfolio companies on-site in our Montréal, Canada workspace. Also known as Entrepreneurs-in-Residence, they are the heart of our start-up foundr, the Co-Founders and leaders of our portfolio companies, and the innovative drive behind our success. They are given significant equity ownership and are separately paid an annual salary. While we nucleate start-up companies around technologies that cover a breadth of disciplines, some of our areas of interest include, but are not limited to: Machine learning, optical physics, embedded systems, computer vision, nanoscale materials, neuroengineering, wireless communications, aerospace/UAVs, biometrics, energy harvesting, small-scale robot

We develop 3D mobile app products for industrial and medical application needs.

ixana.ai is a Purdue University spinoff, developing brain-inspired wearable computing. We have assembled a team of leading experts in the field of IC/system design with an appetite for taking on the next big thing. Come join us in the journey of transforming the future with high-speed human-computer interfaces that amplify your potential with all-day real-time AI. We are VC backed and have long runway Demo of touch to share data: vimeo.com/ixana/pairing-contact-transfer

Mass spectrometry is a well-established analytical technique used in virtually every chemical analysis laboratory for limitless applications from safety & security, to food science, biotechnology, clinical diagnostics and controlling industrial processes. Conventional laboratory mass spectrometry setups are designed to accommodate a wide variety of often-disparate needs, but unfortunately this flexibility leads to complexity. And complex systems are large, expensive, and tricky to operate and maintain. We are building ridiculously small, and elegantly simple purpose-built products based on remarkable mass spectrometry technology. These systems are designed for specific applications in security, biotechnology, diagnostics and others, bringing MS capability from the centralized lab to the point of need.

HAX is an SOSV program for hard-tech startups transforming industry. HAX started in 2012 with the goal to provide entrepreneurs with the opportunity to solve the world’s problems through hardware. We’ve spear-headed the hardware renaissance and created the lean hardware movement, which led us to build the world’s largest community of hardware companies with our two-stage programs - Stage I in Shenzhen which helps startups build and ship products, and a Stage II program in San Francisco which is helping them scale worldwide. The 300+ startups HAX invested in have been tackling extremely important world challenges in consumer, health, enterprise and industrial environments, while impacting the world with amazing products such as Particle, Makeblock, Yeelight, Avidbots, Opentrons, Nura, Simbe Robotics, etc... Companies are hailing from the US at 60%, 20% from Europe and 20% from Asia.