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Quilter

Category: AI Developer Tools

An AI-powered physics-driven platform that automates printed circuit board (PCB) design through reinforcement learning, transforming weeks of manual layout work into hours of autonomous design generation. Quilter was founded in 2019. The company is led by Sergiy Nesterenko. Based in Los Angeles, USA. Team size: 11-50. Total funding raised: $40.0M. Latest round: Series B ($25.0M, October 2025). Key investors include Index Ventures, Benchmark, Coatue, Root Ventures, Lip-Bu Tan.

Founded
2019
Headquarters
Los Angeles, USA
Team size
11-50
Total funding
$40.0M

Value proposition

Compresses PCB design cycles from weeks to hours while maintaining physics-validated, manufacturable designs that eliminate costly revisions and accelerate time-to-market for hardware products

Products and solutions

Autonomous PCB Layout Engine, Physics-Driven Design Validation System, Multi-Candidate Design Generation Platform, Native CAD Integration (Altium, Cadence, Siemens/Xpedition, KiCad), Constraint-Aware Component Placement System, Automated BGA Fanout (beta, 2026), Calculated Impedance Profiles (Simbeor), Cloud and On-Premise Deployment

Unique value

Physics-first reinforcement learning approach that trains on electromagnetic and thermal principles rather than historical design data, enabling truly autonomous layout generation without requiring large datasets of existing PCBs

Target customer

Hardware engineering teams, aerospace/defense contractors, consumer electronics manufacturers, Fortune 500 companies requiring rapid PCB prototyping and design automation

Industries served

Semiconductors, Aerospace & Defense, Consumer Electronics, Robotics, Hardware Development, Electronic Design Automation

Technology advantage

Integrates real-time physics validation (signal integrity, thermal dynamics, manufacturability) directly into the AI generation loop, producing 'correct by construction' designs that eliminate the traditional iterative design-check-revise cycle

How they differentiate

Physics-driven reinforcement learning AI that autonomously generates complete PCB layouts in hours, integrating with existing EDA workflows rather than replacing them

Main competitors

Flux.ai, JITX, Cadence (Allegro X AI)

Key partnerships

Index Ventures (Series B lead investor), Benchmark (Series A lead investor), Coatue Management, Root Ventures, Industry expert Lip-Bu Tan (advisor/investor), Native CAD file support: Altium, Cadence, Siemens/Xpedition, KiCad, AWS (cloud platform host), Simberian Simbeor (impedance solver integration), Sierra Circuits / SierraConnect (DAC 2026 co-booth)

Notable customers

Defense contractors (spaceflight qualification tests), Global Tier-1 automotive company, Major electronics distributor

Major milestones

First company to publicly demonstrate fully autonomous PCB layout through physics-driven AI, Successfully designed 843-part Linux computer that booted on first try (Project Speedrun), Series B led by Index Ventures in October 2025 ($25M; ~$40M total raised), SOC 2 Type II compliance achieved March 10, 2026, Automated BGA fanout and expanded complexity releases (July 8, 2026)

Growth metrics

LinkedIn lists ~49 employees (11-50 band); LA Times SoCal list cites 35 SoCal employees. Fortune 500 aerospace, defense, and consumer electronics adoption narrative from Series B still cited; continued product expansion and enterprise SOC 2 Type II in 2026.

Market positioning

AI-native PCB layout automation layer positioned as 'beyond assisted automation' - turning layout from weeks-long manual process to hours-long autonomous batch job

Geographic focus

North America and Western Europe primary markets, with secondary focus on East Asia through EDA tool compatibility

Patents and IP

No publicly disclosed patents as of latest update; technology appears to be protected as trade secrets around their physics-driven RL engine and integrated constraint-solving methods

About Sergiy Nesterenko

Former Senior Radiation Effects Engineer at SpaceX (2014-2019), where he developed radiation-hardened electronics for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets. Founded Quilter in 2019 after experiencing firsthand how PCB design bottlenecks impacted launch schedules.

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