There are many ways to fund a hardware startup. Early stage funding can be obtained from three sources, commonly referred to as the '3Fs', which rather unkindly stands for "Friends, Family and Fools". The good news is that there are plenty of smart, insightful and not so foolish "fools" out there who are willing to hand over their hard earned cash providing you can put forward a compelling vision and product roadmap. 

This approach is known as "Crowdfunding". Some crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter and Indiegogoenable founders to raise cash in exchange for perks. Others such as Seedrs and Crowdcube exchange cash investments for equity. Other forms of equity funding include angels investment and venture capital. Finally if debt is the preferred option, peertopeer lending platforms such as SoMoLend and FundingCircle are becoming increasingly popular. 

Don't forget there are plenty of tax breaks, grants and government backed match-funding initiatives out there worth exploring. Finally you could get suited and booted and head to your nearest high street bank but that's so old school.

reward (WHITE LABEL)

Selfstarter

Selfstarter is an open source starting point for building your own ad-hoc crowdfunding site. It was put together by Lockitron after they were turned down from Kickstarter.

Location: San Francisco, USA
Website: www.selfstarter.us
Open Tilt


Launch your own advanced crowdfunding page. Open Tilt is one of the most flexible crowdfunding platform for ideas, pre-orders, and sales. Built to power your business, brand, or organization.


Location: San Francisco, USA
Website: open.tilt.com

REWARD (PLATFORM)

Kickstarter

A home for everything from films, games, and music to art, design, and technology. Kickstarter is full of projects, big and small, that are brought to life through the direct support of their community. Since 2009, 7 million people have pledged $1 billion, funding 70,000 creative projects. 

Location: New York, USA
Website: www.kickstarter.com
Indiegogo

Indiegogo is an international crowdfunding site founded by Danae Ringelmann, Slava Rubin, and Eric Schell in 2008. Its headquarters are in San Francisco, California. The site was founded in 2008 and was one of the first sites to offer crowd funding. 

Location: San Francisco, USA
Website: www.indiegogo.com
RocketHub

RocketHub is an online crowdfunding platform. Users from around the world — including musicians, entrepreneurs, scientists, game developers, philanthropists, filmmakers, photographers, theatre producers/directors, writers, fashion designers,etc. post fundraising campaigns to RocketHub to raise funds and awareness for projects and endeavors.

Location: New York, USA
Website: www.rockethub.com co
Dragon Innovation

Founded by a team of seasoned hardware experts, Dragon can de-risk and simplify manufacturing. They provide the framework, process, tools, knowledge, and connections to help hardware startups go from prototype to production.

The company operates its own Kickstarter clone for hardware startups as well as a seed fund for projects that generate $1m+ in pre-orders via their platform.

Location: Cambridge, USA
Website: www.dragoninnovation.com

EQUITY

Crowdcube

Crowdcube is an equity-based crowd funding platform that offers people equity in unlisted UK registered businesses in exchange for their investment. Developed as an alternative to Banks, Business Angel or Venture Capital funding, start-ups can use the Crowdcube platform to raise business finance from "The Crowd" to find investment.

Location: Exeter, UK
Website: www.crowdcube.com
Seedrs

Seedrs is an equity crowdfunding platform for investing in startups and later-stage businesses throughout Europe.[1] Seedrs allows users to invest as little as £10 into the startups they choose online and lets early-stage startups raise investment from friends, family and other independent investors in exchange for equity in the business. Seedrs is an "all or nothing" platform where companies do not receive any funding unless they reach their declared investment target, but businesses have the chance to accept more than originally asked for in a process called "overfunding".

Location: London, UK
Website: www.seedrs.com
Syndicateroom

Equity crowdfunding has democratised investment in startups, helping entrepreneurs to make their business visions a reality and allowing individuals to invest and become real-life ‘Dragons’.

Location: London, UK
Website: www.syndicateroom.com
InvestingZone

InvestingZone launched in May 2013. Like other crowdfunding websites, the firm gives investors access to some potentially excellent early-stage companies.

Location: London, UK
Website: www.investingzone.com
Squareknot

Squareknot was incorporated in September 2012, by Derek Bond, Brian Smillie Snr and Brian Smillie Jnr, and commenced trading in September 2013 after they conducted a comprehensive review of the crowdfunding landscape. The aim of the company, is to provide an industry leading platform for registered investors to make investments in viable investment opportunities. 

Location: Glasgow, UK
Website: www.squareknot.co.uk
Bloom VC

Amanda Boyle created Bloom in 2010, when she spotted an imminent funding gap for startups, early stage businesses, communities, art and culture... in fact, anything that needs the smallest amount of cash to get going. The idea is simple, harness the power of the crowd (that’s you, me and everyone around us) and, in return for financial contributions – no matter how small - claim a reward from project owners.

Location: London, UK
Website: www.bloomvc.com
BankToTheFuture

BankToTheFuture is a UK website for crowd funding one or more of equity or rewards for small businesses. It was founded by Simon Dixon and Bliss Dixon. They were motivated by the exit of major UK banks from small business lending. A notable backer is Richard Branson. The name “BankToTheFuture” is a reference to the line ““Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.” from the movie Back to the Future

Location: London, UK
Website: Banktothefuture.com
Sharein

ShareIn connects individual investors to companies who need equity funding. Investors discover innovative companies and share in their future by buying shares in them from as little as £10. We've created the site for financially savvy investors.

Companies prepare a pitch explaining all about themselves, how much of their company they wish to sell and at what price – a process that's known as equity crowdfunding.

Location: Edinburgh, UK
Website: www.sharein.com

dEBT

Funding Circle

Funding Circle was created with a big idea: to revolutionize the outdated banking system and secure a better deal for everyone. Thousands of loans later, they’ve helped businesses expand, investors prosper and the economy grow. Funding Circle is the world’s leading marketplace exclusively focused on small businesses - more than $500m (£300m) has been lent to 5,000 businesses. Today, businesses can borrow directly 30,000 investors.

Location: London, UK
Website: www.fundingcircle.com