HAXLR8R Invites Hardware Startups to Accelerator Program in China, Chance to Pitch in US

We received a note today from the folks at Chinaccelerator alerting us to their just-launched HAXLR8R, a partnership accelerator program with SeeedStudio, a ‘hardware facilitation’ company based in Shenzhen, China. They’re inviting hardware startups to apply for the 111-day program, which is described as follows:

HAXLR8R takes teams with hardware prototypes and turns them into functional, fundable companies… The teams go through a competitive application process and agree to locate themselves in Shenzhen for the duration of the program. Over fifteen weeks, the startup teams will build and refine their prototype product, launch it to an initial group of customers for feedback, and test their delivery and/or business models. During the last two weeks, each startup creates a polished company pitch and demo to present to seed investors and potential partners at HAXLR8R Day which will be in the Bay Area.


That last bit sounds kinda cool, hey? And we’ve covered more than a few cool hardware startups here on PO, such as Sasser from Japan, iTwin from Singapore, and Codoon from China — so there’s certainly no shortage of capable makers in the Asia region. And there are Hackerspaces located in Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Shenzhen — the latter will help host HAXLR8R along with SeeedStudio.

Cyril Ebersweller, the founder of Chinaccelerator, elaborated on the reasons for getting involved with hardware startups specifically:

We’ve been trying to help several startups in the hardware space through Chinaccelerator and fell in love with the making of products. After understanding how hard it was for those startups, I thought I should do something about it to try to make things easier. The idea is to say to entrepreneurs and investors “hey don’t be scared about hardware” as I believe great innovations can come from it.

For more details, be sure to check out their FAQ about the project which explains everything in greater detail. The application deadline is January 31, 2021, so be sure to check it out and see if it’s right for you. If hardware’s not your scene, entrepreneurs might also check out the CODE_n12 contest for a chance to show off your startup at CeBIT in Germany. Or you can always enter our own Startup Arena which takes place this February in sunny Singapore!