The front end for hardware. Get funded — and built.
Fractional Forge helps deep-tech and hardware founders get funded — and built. We bring the commercial strategy, the capital, and a curated network of Europe’s best manufacturing and design partners — so you can run like a software company instead of drowning in engineering and manufacturing.
Strategy and capital up front, a curated build network behind you — and your first Design Dossier free.
Hardware is harder than software — by design.
Software won partly because the hard infrastructure is rented. AWS and Azure run the compute; the app stores handle distribution. A founder can stay product- and customer-led and let someone else own the atoms. Hardware has no equivalent: founders must invent the product, engineer it, stand up a factory or supply chain, and raise the capital — all at once. It’s why so many genuinely good hardware companies stall.
Three things, so you can behave like a software company.
We’re the commercial front end and the orchestration layer for hardware. You stay product-, sales- and marketing-led; a curated build network does the rest.
Strategy & commercial
We sharpen what you’re building, for whom, and why they buy — the positioning, the route to market, and the team you need.
It starts on day one with a free Design Dossier: an 80+ page, first-principles engineering and procurement briefing on your idea.
Capital
We raise the money. A curated investor network and an introducer / success-fee model — no raise, no fee — plus grants and non-dilutive routes.
A built-in manufacturing story makes you far more fundable.
Build
A curated, tiered network of Europe’s best design houses and contract manufacturers — plus a fractional bench of senior manufacturing engineers.
So you don’t build a factory to ship a product.
Your day-one on-ramp: a full Design Dossier, free.
Describe your idea in a short brief — a paragraph to a page. Anvil, the engine inside Fractional Forge, returns an 80+ page Design Dossier: the engineering, the costs, the licences and regulations, the risks you haven’t spotted — and investors who’ve backed similar products. It’s how every founder relationship starts, and the basis for the conversations that follow.
System architecture
Your idea broken into buildable sub-systems and modules.
Full bill of materials
Real manufacturer part numbers and costed lines — with the maths shown so you can check it.
13-stage engineering review
An honest gate-by-gate verdict: what’s sound, what still needs work.
Manufacturer shortlist
Named UK & EU suppliers per module, drawn from 14,000+ profiles.
Licences & regulations
The standards, certifications and approvals you’ll face — BS EN, IEC, UL, G99 — so nothing blindsides you later.
Investors who’ve backed similar
5 investors who’ve funded products like yours, with a starting point on how to reach them — researched, not a guarantee.
Risk & readiness audit
A straight “what’s not ready yet” list, so nothing bites you in diligence.
Worked calculations
Every key number derived in plain sight with real, open physics libraries — PyBaMM, CoolProp, ASHRAE psychrometrics — hand-checkable, not a black box.
Four real Design Dossiers. Open one and scroll.
Each was built by Anvil from a short brief — architecture, full physics and workings, a costed bill of materials, and named suppliers. Real and unedited. Yours covers your idea, not these.
Grid-scale battery storage
A 3.5 MWh containerised battery energy-storage system for the UK grid-scale market.
Modular vertical farm
A 40 ft container modular vertical farm for high-care leafy-green production.
CO₂ capture & mineralisation
A containerised CO₂ capture and mineralisation plant, designed against the Carbfix reference.
Power-to-Liquid aviation fuel
A field-erected Power-to-Liquid plant making sustainable aviation fuel from biogenic CO₂ and renewable hydrogen.
Real, unedited Dossiers (~25 MB each) — they open in a new tab.
Build a hardware company that behaves like a software company.
- Focus on your product and your customers, not factories.
- Access world-class manufacturing without the capital expenditure.
- Get design-for-manufacture advice from day one.
- Get fundraising-ready, with a built-in manufacturing story investors trust.
Most founders we work with are deep in the science and the engineering. We take the commercial, the capital and the build off your plate — so you can run the company, not the workshop.
Tell us what you’re building →Become one of our build partners.
We’re assembling a small, curated panel of best-in-class build and engineering partners across Europe — deliberately just three per tier of complexity, from design and prototyping through to mid-volume and complex-systems integration.
- Funded deal flowDe-risked, funded, commercially-led product companies ready to build — orders that fill your lines, not just leads.
- A paid fractional benchPaid advisory work for your senior engineers, helping our founders design for manufacture from day one — which brings the build to you.
- An equity optionOn selected companies, a small equity stake in exchange for favourable build terms: real upside and locked-in future builds.
We name partners only once they’ve joined — the panel is being assembled now.
Real physics. Real data. Not a black box.
The Design Dossier isn’t a chatbot guessing numbers. Its engineering review runs 231 calculation tools built on the same peer-reviewed, open physics libraries professional engineers use — and checks every part against live, real-world data. Each Dossier shows its workings and its sources.
Peer-reviewed engineering libraries
The maths behind your Dossier comes from published, citable science:
231 calculation tools across battery, thermal, fluids, power, chemical-process and structural domains — all open and citable.
Checked against real-world data
Every part and price is grounded in live sources, not invented:
- Live component pricing — Mouser, Digi-Key, Farnell & LCSC
- 36,000-part reference library with real manufacturer part numbers
- 30,000 UK & EU suppliers — matched per module
- Jurisdiction standards — BS EN, IEC, G99, UL, NFPA
- Curated materials pricing — steel, copper, aluminium, composites
35 data sources in total — over 5 million reference records, refreshed continuously.
I’ve built the factories, raised the money, and sat on both sides of the table.
I’m Tristan Fischer. Over twenty-five years I’ve been a founder, chief executive, executive chairman and board director of capital-intensive technology businesses — across solar, wind, tidal, batteries, vertical farming and carbon capture. I’ve also worked in project finance at Citigroup, corporate venture capital at Shell Technology Ventures, as an angel investor, and I took a company public on AIM. Across my own and advised companies I’ve helped raise around £200 million.
Most recently I spent a decade building and running Fischer Farms, one of the world’s largest vertical farms. I know what it takes to get a physical product designed, funded and built — because I’ve done it, repeatedly, and from every seat at the table. Fractional Forge is the front end I wish founders had had.
— Tristan, Founder, Fractional Forge
Start free. Go deeper when it’s worth it.
Design Dossiers
- One paragraph in, a full Design Dossier out
- Architecture, bill of materials & costs
- Manufacturer shortlist per module
- 5 investor matches + how to reach them
- First Dossier free — £100 per Dossier after
Advisory
- We work through your Dossier together
- Pressure-test the design, costs & sourcing
- Shape the raise & the investor approach
- Introductions to the build network
Fundraising is introducer / success-fee. We raise, we take a success fee, and if there’s no raise there’s no fee. Introductions to our curated build network are part of working with us.
Good to know.
Is Fractional Forge just the Dossier?
How does the build network work?
I’m a manufacturer — how do I join?
How accurate are the costs and the investor list?
Who owns the IP I create?
Get funded — and built.
Two ways in: tell us what you’re building, or join the curated build panel.
Tell us what you’re building.
Write a short brief and get your first Design Dossier free — the architecture, the costs, the risks, and investors who’ve backed similar products.
Get your brief →Join the build panel.
De-risked, funded, commercially-led companies ready to build — plus paid fractional work and, on selected companies, equity upside.
Talk to us about the panel →