Deep tech startup Itera emerges from stealth with the world's first fluid circuit board — a glass and liquid metal platform that lets engineers reconfigure circuits in under a minute, eliminating weeks-long PCB prototyping cycles.
Itera, a deep tech startup, has emerged from stealth mode with a prototype of what it describes as the world’s first fluid circuit board — a platform enabling engineers to test and modify electronic designs instantly with real components. The company has simultaneously raised $12 million in seed funding from Upfront Ventures, Costanoa Ventures, and Colle Capital Partners.
The technology is designed to fundamentally replace the traditional PCB prototyping cycle, where each design change typically takes 2 to 6 weeks to fabricate and test.
Source: PCB Directory (May 29, 2026)
Itera’s platform uses a system based on glass substrate and liquid metal interconnects that lets engineers reconfigure circuits in under a minute. The key differentiators from traditional prototyping:
Real-time iteration: Engineers upload designs, test with real components, make changes, and retest immediately — from anywhere. What was a sequential multi-week process becomes a continuous workflow.
Real components, real behavior: Unlike pure simulation, Itera’s system works with physical components experiencing actual electrical behavior. Engineers can probe any point in the circuit for deep visibility — something not possible with standard PCB prototypes where test points must be designed in advance.
Remote operation: Designs are assembled at secure US-based facilities using customer-specified components, where they can be tested and refined remotely until ready for manufacturing.
The traditional hardware development cycle is well-understood but painfully slow:
This cycle means each design change costs $500-$5,000 and 2-6 weeks, depending on board complexity. Most products go through 3-8 prototype iterations before production. Itera claims to compress this loop to minutes rather than weeks.
“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. “Hardware has always been hard because it is permanent. Changing it requires time and money. Itera is making hardware easy.”
Itera operates on an Electronics-as-a-Service model, which means:
This model positions Itera as a complement to — not a replacement for — PCB fabrication. Once a design is validated on Itera’s platform, it still needs to be manufactured as a traditional rigid or flex PCB for production deployment.
Initial production capacity has already been reserved by:
These early adopters share a common challenge: complex multi-layer designs where each iteration costs tens of thousands of dollars and weeks of schedule time. Automotive and defense electronics are particularly sensitive to development timeline compression due to regulatory qualification requirements.
Itera’s technology addresses the validation phase of hardware development — confirming that a circuit topology works before committing to PCB fabrication. For production manufacturing, traditional PCB fabrication remains essential:
