Founder x Investor: Fundraising for Consumer Hardware

🚀 Building a consumer hardware company and thinking about raising capital?

Fundraising for consumer hardware is different. Investors need to believe in the product, the market and your ability to manufacture, distribute and scale.

This event brings experienced founders and investors together for an honest conversation about what it really takes to build and fund a successful consumer hardware company.

No generic fundraising advice. We’ll focus on the questions that matter when you’re deciding whether to raise and preparing to speak with investors.

Meet the panel:

👉 Francesca Brady: Co-Founder and CEO of Aira Labs, a company helping people understand how the air they breathe affects their health. Francesca is working to make clean-air choices easier and more accessible for everyone.

👉 Artur Kenzhaev: CTO and Co-Founder of Haelo Health, developing a smart ring built for elderly safety and non-intrusive health monitoring. Haelo combines advanced sensors and AI-driven insights to support fall detection, proactive care and greater independence.

👉 Adit Gandhi: Investment Analyst at British Design Fund, an early-stage investor backing UK product design and manufacturing businesses. The fund invested in SmartyPlants, founded by Grishin Robotics Accelerator alumnus Ben Beavers.

👉 Tatiana Klimanova: Programme Director at Grishin Robotics, with over 15 years of experience in venture building, product and innovation. Her work with more than 70 startups spans product strategy, go-to-market, investment readiness and scaling operations.

What we’ll cover:

The traction milestones for consumer hardware companies

Knowing when your company is ready to fundraise

What investors evaluate beyond the strength of the product

Securing your first investor meetings

The early signals that make investors interested

Manufacturing readiness and supply-chain risk

Agenda:

9:30am - 10.00am: Registration & Breakfast

10:00am: Doors close and no entry after

10:00am - 11.00am: Panel & Q&A

11:00am - 12.30am: Networking - your chance to connect with our panel and other ambitious founders.

About Grishin Robotics Accelerator

The Grishin Robotics Accelerator is London's highly selective, one-month intensive program dedicated to pre-seed and seed tech startups.

We're now accepting applications for GRx Accelerator 5th Cohort, November 2026.

Apply now 👉https://www.grishinrobotics.com/accelerator

About Grishin Robotics

Grishin Robotics is an early-stage Venture Capital firm based in Silicon Valley. We back founders of consumer and consumerized enterprise startups that disrupt large and growing markets.

The fund has backed category-defining companies such as Ring (acquired by Amazon for $1B), Spin (acquired by Ford), Zipline (autonomous drone delivery), Starship (last-mile delivery robots), Sphero (robotic toys), and Eero (acquired by Amazon). We invest in Seed and Series A startups targeting large consumer markets such as online entertainment, gaming, food, education, team productivity and collaboration