Circuit Mind raises $25M to deploy AI agents across hardware design workflows

Circuit Mind Ltd., a British hardware design firm, has secured $25 million in fresh capital to broaden its AI-driven platform across the printed circuit board design lifecycle. Accompanying the funding announcement is the rollout of a new verification tool that deploys AI agents to identify flaws in circuit schematics.

The company builds software designed to reduce the manual effort required in circuit board design. According to Circuit Mind, engineers often invest more than a year developing new hardware, much of which involves studying component datasheets that can span thousands of pages. Design defects frequently go undetected until prototypes are manufactured and tested.

Circuit Mind contends that off-the-shelf large language models lack the necessary training on professionally engineered circuits to handle this work independently. The company's approach combines AI agents with a proprietary physics-based engine that validates each design decision against electrical specifications. The system draws on Circuit Mind's own machine-readable component libraries and incorporates each customer's specific engineering standards and approved supplier lists.

Design automation and the new verification engine

Circuit Mind's original offering converts hardware block diagrams into schematics, bills of materials and related documentation within minutes. The platform generates multiple design variants optimized for different criteria—such as minimizing cost or power consumption—that engineers can evaluate. Completed designs integrate directly with the electronic computer-aided design tools already in use by engineering teams.

The newly unveiled Agentic Verification Engine targets the design review phase. AVE assigns this responsibility to a network of AI agents that examine every connection and signal path in a circuit. Working from component specifications and customer-provided review guidelines, the agents cross-reference pin assignments and voltage tolerances. The system performs its own validation before presenting findings to engineers.

Customer results and real-world impact

Circuit Mind has documented several customer successes with its design application. Engineers at Los Alamos National Laboratory completed a moderately complex circuit board in just over four hours using the platform, compared to an estimated 60 to 80 hours through traditional methods, according to a publicly released report from the laboratory.

At Schneider Electric SE, preliminary testing indicates a reduction exceeding 90% in the time spent evaluating electronic architectures, according to Daniel Gheno, chief technology officer for energy management. The company counts several Fortune 5 firms among its user base. Circuit Mind reports that customers have achieved 25% reductions in bill of materials costs.

Charlie Eastberg, director of hardware engineering at Emerson Electric Co.'s process systems and solutions division, noted that Circuit Mind's tools have accelerated his team's progression from system design to schematic development. The platform has additionally strengthened "design validation and review coverage," he stated.

Funding and expansion plans

The $25 million funding package comprises two components. Norwest Venture Partners led an $18.5 million Series A round that included participation from new investor Lightscape Partners alongside existing backers Third Prime, Differential Ventures and Blackhorn Ventures. The remainder originated from a previously undisclosed seed round that Third Prime spearheaded. Dave Zilberman, a general partner at Norwest, will assume a seat on Circuit Mind's board.

Circuit Mind intends to deploy the capital toward extending its platform into additional design phases, including testing and firmware development. The company will also expand its sales, engineering and customer success operations and establish a U.S. headquarters to better serve North American customers.

Zilberman remarked that combining AI with physics-based models could "fundamentally improve how engineers design electronics."

Company background and positioning

Circuit Mind co-founder and Chief Executive Tomide Adesanmi characterized electronics design as fundamentally unchanged over four decades, despite AI enabling software teams to accelerate their development cycles significantly. He positioned the company as the hardware equivalent of software coding tools such as Cursor and Claude Code.

Adesanmi established the company in London in 2018 alongside Chief Technology Officer Basilio Gentile. Including this latest funding round, investors have committed a total of $33.4 million to the business. AVE is accessible immediately through Circuit Mind's website.