The Huaqiangbei of San Francisco
A permanent showroom where the Bay Area's hardware startups, robotics companies and makers meet suppliers from around the world. Walk in, find the part, meet the people who make it.
Nothing is sold or bought at SFbei. Suppliers showcase; buyers evaluate; the two sides deal directly. We take no commission and never touch your order.
A trade show that never ends
Trade shows work. The problem is that they last three days, happen once a year, and are usually six thousand miles away. You come home with a tote bag of catalogs and a jet-lagged memory of booth 4C.
SFbei keeps the part that works — thousands of real products on real shelves, next to the people who make them — and runs it 365 days a year, fifteen minutes from your office.
Three floors and 7,000 square feet of servos, screens, switches, sensors, camera modules, actuators, robotic arms, connectors, motors and enclosures, displayed by the suppliers themselves, with catalogs, spec sheets and business cards beside every unit.
An engineer can walk in on a Tuesday with a bracket that needs a motor and leave with three quotes in motion. A purchasing manager can compare six vendors' connectors by picking them up. That is the whole idea.
Walk in
Free for builders once you've pre-registered. No appointment, no badge fee, no booth staff blocking the aisle.
Touch the inventory
Physical displays, sample units, catalogs and spec sheets. Pick it up, measure it, feel the detent on the switch.
We introduce you
SFbei staff connect you to the right person at the supplier — the right contact, time zone and language.
You deal direct
Quotes, samples, terms and POs happen between you and the supplier. No markup, no middleman, no cut.
Nothing is sold at SFbei.
No cash register. No order desk. No inventory changing hands, and no commission on anything that happens afterwards.
SFbei is a discovery layer, not a distributor. Suppliers showcase what they make; buyers evaluate it in person; the two parties transact directly on their own terms. That is what keeps the floor honest — a supplier earns their placement by having the better product, not the better margin split with us.
What you'll find
Components and systems for robotics, AI hardware, automation and general industrial supply — from the screw to the six-axis arm.
Motion & actuation
- servos
- steppers
- BLDC motors
- gearboxes
- linear actuators
- harmonic drives
- lead screws
Robotics & automation
- robot arms
- grippers
- end effectors
- AMR platforms
- conveyors
- PLCs
- safety systems
Sensing & vision
- camera modules
- lidar
- ToF
- IMUs
- encoders
- force/torque
- proximity
- environmental
Displays & HMI
- LCD
- OLED
- e-paper
- touch panels
- switches
- keypads
- encoders
- indicators
Electronics & interconnect
- connectors
- cable assemblies
- PCBs
- passives
- power supplies
- batteries
- BMS
Mechanical & materials
- enclosures
- extrusion
- fasteners
- bearings
- seals
- sheet metal
- castings
- plastics
Manufacturing services
- CNC
- injection molding
- PCBA / EMS
- 3D printing
- finishing
- tooling
Industrial supply
- hand tools
- workholding
- safety
- adhesives
- consumables
- MRO
Three floors, organized the way you source
7,000 square feet in San Francisco, laid out so a visit has a route: components at the bottom, systems in the middle, process and people at the top.
The dense floor
Electromechanical parts, interconnect, displays and sensing — the highest SKU count in the building. Sample walls, drawer displays and browsing aisles built for the engineer who knows roughly what they need and wants to see forty versions of it.
Powered and running
Larger systems on live power — arms, grippers, AMRs, motion rigs and machine-vision cells. Floor space and service drops so a supplier can actually run their equipment instead of showing you a rendering of it.
Where the conversation happens
Process and material suppliers, finish and tooling sample libraries, plus meeting rooms and call booths for factory calls across time zones — and the event space where the mixers, teardowns and supplier nights run.
Put your catalog in front of Silicon Valley
Your buyers are here: the robotics companies, the AI hardware teams, the automation integrators, the funded startups building their first hundred units and the ones scaling to their first hundred thousand.
Getting in front of those buyers normally means a booth, a flight, a visa and three days. At SFbei it means a shelf — staffed, indexed and open all year.
Open to suppliers of components used in robotics, AI, automation and general industrial supply, anywhere in the world.
To apply, submit
- catalogYour product catalog — PDF, printed, or a link to your online catalog.
- contactsContact persons for sales and for engineering, with time zone and working languages.
- bioA company bio: what you make, where you make it, capacity, certifications and your MOQ posture.
Accepted suppliers receive
- ✓Standard display placementA dedicated, staffed spot on the relevant floor for your products, catalogs and business cards.
- ✓Indexing on sfbei.comA searchable supplier profile buyers find when they're looking for exactly what you make.
- ✓Mixers and eventsShowcasing at our regular buyer mixers, teardowns and supplier nights on the floor.
- ✓A registered US addressYour own US business address at SFbei — the thing that makes American buyers treat you as reachable.
- ✓A US phone numberA local number, answered in Bay Area hours.
- ✓Mail forwardingSamples, purchase orders and documents received at SFbei and forwarded to you.
Supplier application
Tell us what you make. We review every application and reply either way.
Free, unlimited access
Engineers, founders, purchasing managers, industrial designers, lab and shop staff. Pre-register once, get screened once, then walk in as often as you like.
- ✓Unlimited year-round accessNo appointment, no badge fee, no per-visit registration desk.
- ✓Staff who know the floorDescribe the part. We'll walk you to everyone in the building who makes something like it.
- ✓Direct supplier introductionsWarm handoffs to the right contact — not a generic sales@ address that answers in nine days.
- ✓Mixers, teardowns and supplier nightsInvitations to everything we run on the third floor.
About the pre-screening
We verify that you're building something — a company, a lab, a product, a serious project. That's the whole bar. It keeps the floor useful for suppliers and keeps the browsing serious, which is what makes suppliers willing to put real inventory on the shelf.
Builder pre-registration
Free. One screening, then unlimited access.
The things everyone asks
Can I buy something on the floor?
No. Nothing is sold or bought at SFbei. You leave with catalogs, cards, spec sheets, sometimes a sample — and an introduction. The transaction happens directly between you and the supplier, on your terms.
Does SFbei take a commission?
No. We are not in your deal and we don't want to be. Suppliers pay for placement; buyers pay nothing. That's the entire business model, and it's why nobody on our staff has a reason to steer you toward one shelf over another.
Do I need an appointment?
No. Pre-register once and pass the screening; after that you walk in during opening hours as often as you like.
Is this only for suppliers from China?
No. SFbei is open to suppliers worldwide — Asia, Europe, North America. Huaqiangbei is the model for the format, not a restriction on the passport.
What does placement cost a supplier?
A flat annual fee based on display size and floor, quoted when your application is accepted. No commission, no per-lead charge, no revenue share.
We don't have a US entity. Is that a problem?
That's part of the point. Accepted suppliers get a registered US address at SFbei, a US phone number and mail forwarding — so American buyers can reach you, ship you samples and send you a PO without an international leap of faith.
Can we run a live demo of our equipment?
Yes — the second floor is built for it, with the space and power for arms, AMRs and motion rigs to actually run.
Will my catalog be visible to my competitors?
Everything on the floor is public — that's what a showroom is. Pricing isn't part of the display; that stays between you and the buyer.
What if the part I need isn't in the building?
Tell our staff. Sourcing gaps are how we decide which suppliers to recruit next, and we'll come back to you when someone who makes it takes a shelf.
Find your supplier. Or find your buyers.
SFbei is the best place for hardware entrepreneurs, engineers and buyers to find their suppliers — and the best place for suppliers to showcase what they make, in the heart of the world's hub of innovation.