B&A helps founders turn ambitious physical AI and smart hardware ideas into real products — where design, sourcing, prototyping, and iteration happen fastest. Next cohort starts July 1.
AI is moving beyond software. The next generation of breakout companies will combine intelligence with products in the physical world. At the same time, Shenzhen remains unmatched for building hardware quickly. B&A is built around that convergence.
The most consequential AI applications will not live only on screens. They will live in devices, tools, machines, homes, and workplaces. The hardware layer is where AI's next chapter gets written.
No other city compresses the distance between concept and physical product like Shenzhen. Suppliers, tooling, prototyping, and manufacturing expertise are within reach at a density that doesn't exist anywhere else.
Building physical AI products requires a different kind of startup. You need to move fast on software and hardware simultaneously, with access to supply chain, manufacturing expertise, and founder-level support.
Shenzhen offers the speed, density, and manufacturing depth that ambitious teams need in the earliest stages of company building.
B&A helps teams with what actually matters for early-stage hardware companies. Execution over ceremony.
Pressure-testing your hypothesis against market reality, customer pain, and what Shenzhen makes possible to build fast.
Guidance on the shortest path from CAD to working prototype, with access to Shenzhen's rapid manufacturing network.
Introductions to suppliers, factories, and fabrication partners. Navigating the supply chain without wasted time or costly mistakes.
Structured approaches to finding early customers, testing demand assumptions, and building evidence of a real market before scaling.
Hands-on sessions with engineers, supply chain specialists, and experienced founders. Practical knowledge, not conference panels.
A cohort of serious builders working on adjacent problems, plus structured exposure to investors active in hardware and physical AI.
Task-oriented products that combine hardware and intelligence to create a clearly better user experience. Products people use every day, made smarter. The bar is demonstrable utility, not ambient capability.
Products, tools, and systems that bring intelligence into the physical world at scale. Devices, modules, workflows, and infrastructure that make industrial, commercial, or built environments more capable.
We are selecting 7 founders and teams for Cohort 01. Alongside them, we will introduce 3 Request-for-Founder ventures for builders who want to launch with a sharper company thesis.
B&A will also launch a small number of Request-for-Founder ventures: carefully framed company concepts for exceptional builders who want to start with a sharper thesis.
Consumer smart devices operate as isolated silos with no shared environmental awareness, creating redundant, disconnected experiences.
Register interest →Small and mid-size manufacturers rely on manual inspection for quality control, with 15–25% defect escape rates and no affordable automated alternative.
Register interest →Industrial and logistics operators collect terabytes of sensor data with no affordable infrastructure to act on it in real time at the edge.
Register interest →B&A is building a hands-on network of engineers, operators, founders, investors, and industry specialists who want to contribute practically — not ceremonially.
B&A partners with organizations that want to support the growth of global founder talent and next-generation hardware ventures in Shenzhen. Partners gain visibility into an emerging founder pipeline and contribute to Shenzhen's international innovation profile.