Itera raises $12M to bring real-time prototyping to electronics

San Francisco-based deep tech startup Itera emerged from stealth with a prototype of the “world’s first fluid circuit board,” enabling engineers to test and modify electronic designs using real components in real time. The company also announced USD 12 million in seed funding from Upfront Ventures, Costanoa Ventures, and Colle Capital to launch their first product and bring it to market, according to a media release.

Itera’s patented technology uses a novel architecture of glass and liquid metal, allowing circuit rewiring in less than a minute.

“Software developers have been able to write code, test, and iterate in real time for decades. Itera makes real-time design and iteration possible for hardware too,” said AJ Cooper, CEO and Co-founder of Itera. “Hardware has always been hard because it is permanent. Changing it requires time and money. Itera is making hardware easy. For the first time ever, an engineer can change a circuit and test it again before their coffee gets cold.”

Unlike simulation software, which cannot replicate real-world component behavior, Itera’s fluid circuit board is actual components with real electrical behavior. Even more importantly, engineers can probe any internal circuit node, not just exposed test points, offering signal visibility that traditional PCB prototypes cannot match, the media release said.

Itera operates through an Electronics-as-a-Service model: customers’ designs are assembled using their actual components on Itera’s multilayer substrates at secure, US-based testing centers. Customers change and test their hardware and software from anywhere until they have a validated design ready to go to manufacturing.  

“I’ve worked with hardware companies for 15 years and there have been almost no innovations in how to massively reduce the time to test and iterate physical PCB designs,” said Mark Suster, Managing Partner at Upfront Ventures. “Itera brings an AWS-like solution to testing hardware and this can dramatically lower costs for startups and incumbents alike.”