B&A takes high-agency founders from an irresistible desire to solve problems in the world around us, to a seed-investable concept or working prototype — built in Shenzhen, where engineering excellence meets a can-do attitude, forging the fastest iteration cycle on the planet. Next cohort starts July 1.
The next generation of great companies won't be software companies or hardware companies — they will be learning machines. Devices that perceive, models that reason, products that act. B&A exists to build those companies, in the city that makes it possible.
The next great AI companies will not live only in chat windows. They will be built into devices, workflows, and machines that perceive, decide, and act.
Model capability, edge compute, sensors, and connected hardware have finally caught up with each other. Physical AI is no longer theoretical — it is buildable now.
In this category, every deployment is a data advantage. The companies that win will be the ones that turn real-world usage into better models, better products, and faster iteration.
Most founders treat Shenzhen as a place to manufacture. We see it differently. We believe the best AI-native physical product companies should be conceived, prototyped, and proven here — where the enabling stack, the supply chain, and the iteration speed exist nowhere else on Earth.
Being in Shenzhen isn't about cheaper manufacturing. It's about compressing the distance between idea and working product to almost nothing. When your factory floor is a bike ride from your workbench, you iterate in days, not quarters. B&A founders don't outsource to Shenzhen — they build from inside it.
The next generation of great products won't separate AI, industrial design, and production into different phases. They'll co-evolve. B&A puts founders where all three disciplines overlap from day one — so the intelligence is shaped by what's buildable, and the hardware is shaped by what's learnable.
Shenzhen's hardware ecosystem is unmatched — but it has historically been hard to access for international founders. B&A is the bridge: an English-speaking, globally-networked program embedded in the heart of the world's hardware capital. We bring the founders; Shenzhen brings the capability.
Shenzhen should not only be where products are made. It should be where the next generation of AI-native product companies begins.
B&A helps founders build ambitious AI-native physical product companies — not just prototypes. We work across product thesis, technical validation, design, manufacturing, and market proof to help teams move from concept to a real company path.
We help founders define the wedge, the use case, and the moat. The goal is not a niche device with limited upside, but a product company with the potential to grow into a category.
We help teams test technical risk, manufacturability, performance, cost, and user experience early — before expensive decisions lock in. The aim is not a polished demo alone, but a product direction grounded in reality.
For physical products, brand is not an afterthought. Product identity, industrial design, usability, and engineering constraints need to be developed together from the start.
We help founders validate demand, distribution, and competitiveness. And because B&A is rooted in Shenzhen and China, teams can test not only how fast a product can be built, but how well it stands up in one of the world's most demanding product markets.
B&A is for teams building beyond incremental hardware and narrow point solutions. We look for products, systems, and enabling layers that can become central to how people live, work, and operate — across consumer, robotics, and industrial applications.
We back companies that can become core to a workflow, environment, or category — not accessories, add-ons, or isolated features around someone else's platform.
The first use case can be focused, but it must lead somewhere bigger. We want sharp entry points with the potential to expand into large, durable businesses.
The strongest AI-native companies improve through real-world deployment. Data, usage, integration, and operational feedback should make the product better and the company harder to replace.
If the product only matters because another platform already won, it is probably too dependent to become foundational.
We like focused starting points. We do not like businesses that end where they begin.
If the company needs a major scientific or technical leap before it can prove value, it is too early for this program.
Custom engineering, integration, and project work can be valuable businesses. They are not the kind of scalable product companies we are here to back.
We look for products and systems that get stronger with use, data, deployment, or workflow ownership. If that engine is missing, the long-term upside usually is too.
We are selecting 10 entrepreneurs for Cohort 01 — founders with a bold idea or a hunger to build one of ours.
B&A publishes a curated set of Request-for-Proposal briefs: carefully framed company concepts for exceptional builders who want to start with a sharper thesis.
Build software-defined microfactory cells for rapid deployment, copy-exactly repeatability, and high-mix assembly — with measurable productivity uplift and evidence for a first paid pilot.
Build grid-edge devices — dynamic line rating, feeder measurement, power-flow control — to unlock distribution capacity and accelerate DER interconnection. Deliver a credible device and deployment plan that increases grid utilisation or cuts connection delays.
Build hardware replacing fossil process heat — high-temp heat pumps and/or thermal storage for industrial customers — with measurable, replicable performance and credible safety and economics.
Recruit teams that can prove a "hard-task" robotics capability with measurable performance and a realistic deployment playbook for high-friction warehouse tasks involving unstructured manipulation and messy interfaces.
Recruit startups capable of shipping industrial-grade hardware that can survive steel plant conditions and deliver measurable CO₂, energy, or yield improvements — with a credible integration and safety plan.
Recruit startups making edge inference hardware that is economically and operationally deployable in the physical world — lowering TCO through improvements in power, latency, reliability, and deployment simplicity.
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.