CircuitHub raises $28M Series A to expand software-defined PCB manufacturing

CircuitHub has closed a $28 million Series A funding round led by Plural, a London-based operator-led venture capital firm founded by Taavet Hinrikus, Sten Tamkivi, Ian Hogarth, and Khaled Helioui. The company, founded by Andrew Seddon, Rehno Lindeque, and Jon Friedman, operates a software-defined factory model centered on the Grid—a standardized 5,000-square-foot automated module that uses robotics, proprietary manufacturing software, and computer vision AI for component placement and quality control. The funding will scale additional modular manufacturing capacity across Europe and North America, grow the cross-Atlantic engineering team, and extend the company's software platform into a full-service electronics manufacturing offering. CircuitHub has already delivered over 2 million circuit boards and placed 133 million components for roughly 20,000 engineers across autonomous vehicles, aerospace, defense, robotics, and clean energy sectors.

This funding addresses a structural gap in electronics manufacturing: the legacy EMS industry is optimized for high-volume mass production, yet CircuitHub cites data suggesting 95% of all electronic projects are for orders under 10,000 units. The company's Grid model compresses traditional months-long manufacturing timelines into days by enabling high-mix, low-volume production—running one-off prototypes alongside commercial batches of up to 10,000 units across dozens of designs simultaneously. This mirrors the software-defined factory approach seen in additive manufacturing, where companies like Protolabs and Xometry have built digital quoting and production platforms for low-to-mid volume runs. CircuitHub's dual-Atlantic presence (R&D in Cambridge, UK; initial commercial Grid in Massachusetts) positions it to serve the growing onshore reshoring demand, particularly as geopolitical disruptions and maritime delays have exposed the fragility of concentrated Asian supply chains. The company's client base in defense and aerospace aligns with the politically accelerated push for domestic manufacturing sovereignty in both Europe and the US.

CircuitHub's challenge is execution: scaling the Grid model from a single commercial facility to a multi-continent network requires capital discipline and repeatable module deployment, not just software automation. The company must demonstrate that its unit economics hold at scale against both traditional Asian EMS giants and emerging onshore competitors. For buyers in aerospace, defense, and robotics, the practical value is reduced lead times and qualification friction for small-batch production—but only if CircuitHub can maintain quality consistency across geographically distributed Grid modules.