Venture Funded
Brilliant, based in Nevada and California, secured $21 million in its initial fundraising and agreed with its partners to raise the price of its products by $50 after the administration announced tariffs at 10 percent, Emigh said. The company doesn’t think it can raise prices more, even after Trump has said the duty amount may increase to 25 percent, he said.
Emigh has formed a coalition of 15 new venture-funded hardware companies called Start-ups for Sensible Trade to advocate for policies that help new businesses. Ultimately, tariffs can hurt the future U.S. economy if today’s nascent companies can’t grow into the next Apple Inc. or Alphabet Inc.’s Google, he said.
“There are going to be a number of companies that are small now but will be meaningful in the future that we don’t want to impede,” he said.
The duties can also threaten new start-up facilities. Yanjan USA LLC testified Monday that it launched a new manufacturing business in January in Statesville, North Carolina, making non-woven materials for the feminine hygiene and baby diaper markets.
The company said in a filing posted online that it expected to double its 60 workers once six production lines are installed, but it needs raw materials from China now facing tariffs that can’t be replaced, said Thomas Jarvis, a Washington attorney representing the company.
“It’s reasonable to assume that any start-up faced with a dramatic increase in its cost of operations is going to be challenged,” he said in an interview after testifying on Tuesday.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.