Editorial illustration for Bengaluru Startup Builds AI Agents for Existing Hardware Design Tools
AI Agents Turn English into Circuit Board Designs
Bengaluru Startup Builds AI Agents for Existing Hardware Design Tools
CopperPilot has raised $390,000 from Neon Fund and a group of US-based angel investors to build an AI agent that turns plain-English instructions into manufacturing-ready circuit board designs. The Bengaluru startup was founded in October 2025 by Aditya NG, Mohit Bagur and Anish Harsha, and its software is meant to plug into existing hardware design tools rather than replace them, automating schematic capture, PCB layout, routing, simulation and firmware development.
The company says its active user base has grown 25-fold since August, with more than 6,000 design artefacts run through the platform so far. It has now opened the first version of its design agent, codenamed Epsilon, to hardware engineers. The new funding will go toward product research and engineering, improving the agent's reliability, and growing the team.
Aditya, CopperPilot's co-founder and CEO, spoke to AIM about why the three founders built the tool themselves, drawing on his own background working on autonomous vehicle projects at Purdue University and Minus Zero. That experience, he says, shaped his view of what actually slows hardware teams down and what a design agent needs to fix.
The startup said designing electronics, from creating circuit diagrams to ordering the first prototype boards, can take six to 15 weeks and cost between $7,500 and $30,000. CopperPilot says its platform can reduce this process to a few hours.
Why this matters
Hardware design has stayed stubbornly manual while software ate everything else, and that gap is exactly where CopperPilot wants to sit. $390,000 is a seed check, not a war chest, so the real test is whether Aditya NG, Mohit Bagur, and Anish Harsha can get their agent to handle the unglamorous grind of datasheets and schematic capture without hand-holding from the engineers it's meant to replace. For founders watching this space, the pitch is familiar: wrap AI around tools people already use instead of asking them to switch platforms.
That's a smarter wedge than building a new EDA suite from scratch, but it also means CopperPilot's ceiling is tied to how much of PCB design actually reduces to pattern-matching against known components versus the judgment calls that come from years on a factory floor. We'd want to see a working board, not just a demo, before calling this a shift in how hardware gets built. Worth tracking whether Neon Fund's bet turns into a product engineers actually trust with a BOM.
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Common Questions Answered
How does CopperPilot's AI agent integrate with existing hardware design tools?
CopperPilot's software is designed to plug into existing hardware design tools rather than replace them entirely. The AI agent automates key processes including schematic capture, PCB layout, routing, simulation, and firmware development while working within the tools engineers already use.
What timeline and cost reduction does CopperPilot claim for electronics design?
CopperPilot claims it can reduce the electronics design process from the traditional six to 15 weeks down to just a few hours. The platform aims to cut costs from the typical $7,500 to $30,000 range significantly by automating manual design tasks.
Who founded CopperPilot and how much funding did the startup raise?
CopperPilot was founded in October 2025 by Aditya NG, Mohit Bagur, and Anish Harsha in Bengaluru. The startup raised $390,000 in seed funding from Neon Fund and a group of US-based angel investors.
What specific hardware design tasks can CopperPilot automate using plain-English instructions?
CopperPilot's AI agent converts plain-English instructions into manufacturing-ready circuit board designs by automating schematic capture, PCB layout, routing, simulation, and firmware development. This automation eliminates the need for manual entry and repetitive design tasks that typically consume weeks of engineering time.
Further Reading
- CopperPilot Raises Pre-seed to Develop AI Agent for PCB Design - EE Times
- AI Tool Checks Circuit Errors Beyond PCB Design Rules - Electronics For You
- CopperPilot Raises $390K to Automate Circuit Board Design - Electronics For You
- CopperPilot Secures $390K Pre-Seed Funding to Revolutionize Electronics Hardware Design - ETtech
- Cadence Wants AI To Take On Circuit-Board Design - Finimize
