Nearly every electronic device you can think of has at least one printed circuit board (PCB). This board houses and connects the components that enable the device to function properly as a whole. Although circuit boards are not visible to end users, they are essential to the connected world. They power smartphones, cars, microwave ovens and garage doors, as well as other electronic devices.
The global PCB market is big. is expected to grow from a $60 million industry by 2020 to $75 billion in 2027. This is the sector that Germany's Celus hopes to profit from, offering an automated platform that covers all aspects of circuit board design, from conception to final assembly.
Celus announced today that it raised EUR25 million (or $25.6 million) in Series A funding to accelerate its mission of "automated electronics design".
What is the exact scale of the problem Celus sets out to solve?
Component shortage
The engineer must design a PCB starting from scratch. This involves identifying the components needed to power the final product. There may be millions upon millions of components available, with different specifications and sizes from thousands of manufacturers. The process of selecting the right component for the job at the right price and availability can be incredibly labor-intensive. This involves multiple departments within the company, all working together to review thousands of datasheets in order to identify the correct components.
Engineers can then begin to draw circuit diagrams that link all the components. These circuit diagrams will eventually be printed on the final PCB. You might think this is the end of the process. Many companies have to redesign their circuit boards when certain components (such chips) are difficult to obtain, which is a common problem in the Post-Pandemic Supply Chain. This can lead to engineers having to return to square one with their design.
Tobias Pohl, Celus CEO and cofounder, stated that while replacing an inaccessible component with a comparable component is theoretically possible. However, this can lead to a costly redesign of the electronic circuit or the PCB. The Celus automation platform makes it easy to handle such a process in just minutes.
Celus has created a platform to provide engineers with data from electronic manufacturers. It also adds its own automation sauce. Celus automates many manual processes involved with circuit board design. It generates schematics, which is a conceptual drawing of how the parts will connect, and creates a PCB floorplan that shows where each component should go on the circuit board.
Pohl explained that the design canvas is used to draw the product idea and then automatically generates the circuit schematic. "Components can be selected according to their best fit with the requirements. The automation even generates the first PCB. This allows engineers to experiment with different ideas and save time.
Celus allows users to simply describe their requirements and the system will match them to a list of components to find the best fit. Celus is a AI-powered PCB player that focuses on this: it prioritizes component selection and schematics design and makes all of it available in a user-friendly GUI.
AI is not just used in the design of new circuit boards but also during the extraction of information from unstructured data sources. Celus allows engineers to upload schematics and layouts. Algorithms interpret these files to make predictions.
Pohl said that "Traditionally, humans had to consume and interpret many files involved in circuit board design. But AI can transform that type of data into digital by using machine learning."
Celus can be used either as a standalone or integrated in an existing IT environment. Its underlying AI smarts work with industry-standard EDA tools.
Time
This saves precious time which is a valuable commodity in a world with a shortage of skilled engineers. Celus has the advantage of promising circuit board engineers under pressure to design their products at the touch of a button, which is a benefit given global events like pandemics or wars.
Pohl stated that the COVID-19 pandemic caused unprecedented component shortages in the industry. While component obsolescence, supply chain issues, and other concerns have always been a concern for manufacturers of electronic devices, the current problem is so severe that they cannot simply'sit out' and are forced to redesign their products in order to remain in business. Our automation solves that problem in minutes, making product redesign possible.
Celus was founded in Munich in 2018 and had raised just EUR5.4 million in seed financing in its four year history. It has nevertheless managed to attract a number of high-profile clients over the years, including Siemens and Viessmann (a EUR3.4 billion German manufacturer for heating and cooling systems).
Earlybird Venture Capital led Celus' Series A round. Participants included DI Capital, Speedinvest and Plug and Play. There were also angel investors such as Sir John Rose, former CEO of Rolls-Royce, and Paul Gojenola (VP of hardware development at Google’s Nest). Pohl stated that the company will open a new U.S. office to capitalize on the fresh cash injection.
He stated that the software was designed to be accessible to all electronics designers. This allows them to spend more time on creativity and innovation, and reduces the time and effort required to use it.
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