Generative AI has made it easy to turn a prompt into an essay, an image or a working app. Makeable wants to do the same for physical products. The young startup lets users describe a hardware idea in plain language, then ships them a kit to build it.

Makeable has raised $1 million to date with backing from pre-seed specialist Afore Capital, according to a first-person account by cofounder Raymond Loong Ng published by Business Insider.

From Prompt to Parts

The concept is simple to explain and hard to execute. A user types a description of a physical product they want. Makeable's system generates the 3D model, electronics and code needed to make it work, then sends a do-it-yourself kit that the user assembles, much like building with Lego.

If it works at scale, the approach could open hardware creation to people who have never touched a CAD program or soldered a circuit board, the same way no-code tools opened software development to non-programmers.

Hackathon Rivals Turned Cofounders

Ng, 21, met his cofounder on the hackathon circuit, where the two competed on rival teams before joining forces in late 2023. Over time they moved from software projects into hardware.

Before Makeable, the pair built Neural Drive, a device that helps paralyzed patients communicate through brainwaves and eye blinks. That project is set to undergo a clinical trial at a local hospital.

Afore Capital first invested $250,000 in June, and the founders joined the firm's two-month Founders-in-Residence program in San Francisco, living in a hacker house in the Tenderloin. They pivoted several times during the program before landing on Makeable, and Afore made a follow-on investment in the program's final week.

Betting on the Startup Over School

Ng's path to San Francisco was unconventional. Born in Vietnam, he moved to Singapore at age 9, earned a diploma in applied AI and analytics at a Singapore polytechnic and completed two years of mandatory military service. He was accepted into the National University of Singapore's computer science program but deferred his place to build the company. His cofounder has also taken a leave of absence from school.

The founders are now back in Singapore applying for O-1 visas, with plans to return to San Francisco for the next few years. Ng has said he may return to school if the startup does not work out.

Why It Matters

Makeable reflects a growing wave of very young founders getting early checks from investors willing to back talent before a product is fully formed. Afore has built its strategy around exactly that kind of pre-seed bet.

The company has not disclosed customers, pricing or a launch timeline, and turning AI-generated designs into reliable physical kits involves real supply chain and manufacturing challenges. But if Makeable can deliver, it could make building hardware as accessible as writing a prompt.

Source

Business Insider — "My cofounder and I were rivals at hackathons. At 21, I've put college on hold to build a startup with him."