Meet the 4 Hottest Hardware Startups in LA Right Now

Los Angeles is now officially a maker town as the city is now home to its first hardware accelerator – Make in LA . Housed in Chatsworth, the accelerator has recently inducted its first class of four startups which came from near and far – from Shanghai, Bangalore, New York, and of course Los Angeles.

The 4 month program program offers up to $150K in financing to each of the startups, in addition to workspace that features a prototype workshop, warehousing and logistics, and even a full-sized fire truck! The program was cofounded by Shaun Arora and Noramay Cadena and is backed by contract manufacturer NEO Tech. The group hopes to leverage their expertise and resources to allow hardware entrepreneurs to rapidly prototype, deploy to market, and ultimately manufacture at scale - something that hasn’t been easy to do given the capital intensive requirements typically associated with hardware.

Let’s take a look at the four startups that are in the initial batch from Make it in LA. MEET THE 4 HOTTEST HARDWARE STARTUPS IN LA RIGHT NOW

FeeL FeeL is a wearable wristband that monitors and tracks your emotions and biosignals throughout the day. Each device contains three sensors that track blood volume pressure, skin temperature, and galvanic skin response to determine your emotional state at any given time and in real time. Dubbed as the first wristband to track emotions, FeeL, produced by Sentio Solutions in NYC, also provides personalized recommendations to improve your emotional well being incorporating alerts as well the creation of wellness plans that users can follow on the road to happiness.

Fitguard Brain injuries in sports are not always easily detectable or readily apparent. In comes, Fitguard from Force Impact Technologies. The startup founded by Anthony Gonzales and Bob Merriman has built a mouthguard that is able to detect head injuries for the youth sports market. The company is based in Thousand Oaks and has raised $135K in funding over 5 rounds.

RideBlock RideBlock is a smart riser for skateboarders that tracks your tricks and movements. On the backend sits an elegant software app that incorporates social, gamification, and analytics. The popularity of skateboarding has undoubtedly been on the rise and RideBlock is there to ride the wave.

Plobot Coming in from Shanghai, Plobot is a physical programmable robot that takes a new approach to learning program for children. Each Plobot comes with everything necessary to get started and other items can be added in for extended play options. The programming is all done through smart cards rather than through a computer so the children are developing logical thinking skills by understanding syntax. While there has been a lot of focus on teaching programming to children through iPads and computers, Plobot is a new approach marked by physical programming.

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