Cofactr: Making Hardware Not So Hard
How Cofactr is untangling the supply chain to help hardware innovators move faster!
From the moment Matthew Haber first held a circuit board he had designed, he knew something had to change. His previous company, BeSide, built sophisticated hardware for clients like Google, Cadillac and orchestras, but the backend never moved at the speed of innovation. That realisation led to Cofactr.
At its core, Cofactr is rewriting hardware logistics. The platform offers a single view across sourcing, inventory, procurement and shipping, so teams can work from real-time data. No more juggling spreadsheets. It even automates purchasing, handles vendor logistics and connects seamlessly with engineering tools.
When the pandemic exposed the rigidity of global electronics supply chains, Cofactr had the data and structure to help customers navigate uncertainty. Teams can choose which parts to stockpile and which they can delay, balancing risk and cost. Meanwhile, its warehouses offer precision handling: every component is inspected, counted, and climate controlled, with immediate alerts if anything is wrong.
This platform now powers over fifty companies building rockets, medical devices, drones, robotics, and wearables, many in highly regulated industries. Cofactr runs on AWS Government Cloud, is ITAR and SOC 2 certified, and uses a vetted supplier network to ensure compliance.
A big milestone came with a 17.2 million dollar Series A led by Bain Capital Ventures in late 2024, bringing total funding to 28.8 million dollars. That investment reflects confidence in Cofactr’s ability to sustain short-run development, strict traceability, and high-velocity innovation.
What this really means is that hardware teams no longer have to choose between accountability and agility. Cofactr gives them both. It is the platform many founders say they wish existed when they started.
Origins in Design & Hardware
Matthew began his career blending design, media, and engineering. He earned a BFA in stage design, worked on Broadway and immersive environments, and co-founded BeSide Digital. At BeSide he built complex experiential hardware and software projects, from projection mapping for museums to prototype rider experiences for autonomous vehicles. In working with clients like Zoox, Google, Crowdstrike, Armani, and Cadillac, Haber and his co-founder Phillip Gulley saw firsthand how hardware development bottlenecks stood in contrast to the scalability of software.
The gap was clear: an engineering lifecycle driven by spreadsheets, manual RFQs, lengthy logistics, and fragile inventories slowed hardware startups. They realized that software moves fast because systems are integrated; hardware rarely benefits from the same intelligence or end-to-end automation.
After BeSide’s acquisition in 2018, Haber and Gulley reframed that frustration into a problem worth solving: how to make hardware development agile, on par with software in both scale and speed. They launched Cofactr in 2021 with a vision to bridge design to production through integrated data, procurement tools, logistics, and warehousing, all tailored for electronics and critical hardware manufacturing.
What this really means is building an infrastructure stack for hardware similar to AWS in software: on demand, traceable, compliant, intelligent. That thinking underpins Cofactr’s founding mission to make hardware not so hard.
The Problem: Scaling Hardware vs. Software
Scaling hardware has always been painful. It is manual, capital intensive, heavy on logistics, and full of risk. And yet, engineering teams expect software-style speed. Haber realized that software’s advantage is not magic. It is integrated data pipelines, automation, and systems that bridge design to service.
Cofactr tackles this by consolidating BOM, procurement, supplier intel, inventory, logistics, and compliance into one platform. Teams can see real-time availability, pricing, and sourcing status across parts from hundreds of suppliers. AI alerts for discrepancies, supplier delays, and potential counterfeit items replace hours of manual checking.
Their insight: hardware teams do not just need procurement. They need intelligence embedded in procurement, logistics as code. Cofactr automates RFQs, procurement rules, replenishment, global sourcing and shipping, with warehousing and kitting tied in. That is pre-manufacturing infrastructure on autopilot.
What this really means is that engineers can design without losing weeks to part availability, procurement bottlenecks, or logistics headaches. Procurement and logistics become invisible enablers, not fragmentation points. That gap between engineering velocity and physical delivery is exactly what Cofactr went after.
Cofactr’s Platform & Services
Cofactr’s platform includes five pillars: data and analytics, procurement automation, supplier sourcing, logistics and shipping, and inventory, warehousing, and kitting.
On sourcing and procurement, it gathers real-time component availability, price data, distributor lead times, and automates RFQ workflows. AI monitors supplier communications, compares ERP data, flags discrepancies, and triggers follow-ups automatically, meaning customers avoid errors before they impact builds.
For logistics, Cofactr handles shipping, customs, kitting and cross-vendor inventory transfers. Warehousing in U.S. locations enables just-in-time or stockpile strategies, essential in regulated industries. They are ITAR and SOC 2 compliant and run on AWS Government Cloud to meet defense, aerospace, and MedTech requirements.
Traceability matters. Each part’s journey from supplier to warehouse to manufacturer is logged, allowing critical industries to maintain compliance and audits. Their Factor.io acquisition adds deeper BOM tracking intelligence, daily exception reports on purchase orders, supplier status, and ERP syncs, linked directly into Cofactr workflows.
What this really means is near unified workflow: one interface, integrated systems, data as truth, logistics managed in the background. There is no need for juggling spreadsheets, disparate tools, or separate warehouses. It is pre-manufacturing infrastructure as code.
Vision & Market Position
Cofactr positions itself not just as a tool, but as the hardware cloud. Its founders envision it as AWS for hardware, providing on-demand infrastructure that lets companies scale hardware without infrastructure investment.
Backed by Y Combinator, Bain Capital Ventures, and other VCs, Cofactr raised a 6 million dollar seed round in November 2022 and a 17.2 million dollar Series A in December 2024. Investors believe Cofactr’s integrated software, logistics, and procurement approach has no peer in electronics manufacturing.
Key clients include high-compliance organizations in aerospace, robotics, defense, MedTech, autonomous vehicles, and life-sciences instrument manufacturers. They rely on Cofactr to manage thousands of parts per product, while adhering to ITAR, SOC 2, and government contracting standards.
What this really means is Cofactr has tapped a strategic niche. Hardware developers need agility, traceability, and compliance. Cofactr delivers all three under one roof, with investors and early pioneers viewing it as a catalyst for a hardware renaissance on U.S. shores, spurred by policies like the CHIPS Act.
Acquisition of Factor.io & Expansion
In February 2025, Cofactr acquired Factor.io, an AI-powered BOM and supplier tracking tool. Factor.io reviews every email and attachment linked to purchase orders, cross-checks with ERP data, and provides daily exception reports to catch mismatches fast. Those alerts and follow-ups are now embedded in the Cofactr platform.
Factor.io’s CEO Doug Shultz joined Cofactr as Head of Strategic Accounts, boosting the company’s ability to serve regulated industries like defense, aerospace, robotics, MedTech, and high-compliance enterprises.
This acquisition enhances Cofactr’s visibility into every component across the full product lifecycle. It upgrades from procurement automation into intelligent orchestration: spot inconsistencies, respond to delays, prevent bottlenecks before production begins. Clients get granular tracking and execution in one workflow.
What this really means is Cofactr is evolving from logistics and procurement to real-time material intelligence. Now it offers visibility into status and actions across thousands of suppliers and parts, giving customers foresight and scale without blind spots.
User Feedback & Client Impact
Matthew has publicly acknowledged how customer demand shaped Cofactr’s evolution. On LinkedIn he noted clients wanted a comprehensive materials management solution covering 100 percent of their material workflows, not just electronics. That prompted Cofactr to expand its procurement module, qualitative flexibility, and enterprise-grade procure-to-pay features while maintaining simplicity.
Early users include startups building satellites, robots, autonomous vehicles, wearables, and life-science instruments. They report accelerated timelines, fewer procurement errors, better cost predictability, and simplified compliance audits. Cofactr users no longer scramble over missing parts. They can predict when a BOM vendor is late and reroute ahead of time.
What this really means is hardware engineers spend less time chasing spreadsheets and logistics, and more time designing. Procurement teams gain workflow automation. Executives get a central dashboard with traceability and real-time data.
Future Roadmap & AI Tech
Matthew and Phil Gulley emphasize flexibility and integrations ahead. Cofactr’s roadmap includes modular architecture. Customers can adopt only the services they need, whether sourcing, warehousing, automation, or compliance tools.
They see deeper AI and integration between CAD and design tools and procurement decisions. Just as software teams use tools like GitHub Copilot, Haber predicts AI agents will support hardware design decisions and BOM optimizations in real time.
Cofactr aims to embed into broader ecosystems through integrations such as AllSpice, ERP systems like SAP, NetSuite, Oracle, and others, to bring traceable workflows from engineer through supply to factory.
What this really means is that within five to ten years, hardware development could move at the speed of software, with modular ecosystems, AI-assisted part selection, predictive supply analytics, and automated compliance built in.
Founder Personality & Leadership
Matthew speaks like someone who has built hardware under pressure. His background in art, engineering, experiential design, and a pivoted startup gives him empathy for engineering pain points. He values problem-solving and tools that work well, and built Cofactr to be the platform he wished existed on the engineering side of the table.
He emphasizes listening to customers. A LinkedIn post made clear: we underestimated our customers’ appetite, so we expanded to cover 100 percent of material management. That willingness to pivot and expand demonstrates leadership rooted in flexibility, humility, and product-driven iteration.
Haber is driven by the idea that hardware should feel effortless. He views Cofactr as infrastructure for innovation, allowing engineers to think less about procurement and logistics and more about building products that matter. That ethos resonates through Cofactr’s messaging: making hardware not so hard.
