Trace Emerges From Stealth to Automate PCB Design With AI-Driven Platform

New updates have been reported about Trace.

Trace, an AI-focused PCB design software company, has exited stealth mode and begun onboarding customers globally, positioning its platform as a way to compress hardware product timelines by automating one of the most labor-intensive stages of development. Founded by Howard University engineers Ayomide Adekoya, Jeff Allo, and Olu Afolabi, who bring experience from Apple, Meta, and NVIDIA, Trace targets the schematic, component selection, layout, and routing steps that have historically required weeks of manual effort and repeated redesigns.

The company’s system allows engineers to describe circuit requirements in natural language, then automatically generates PCB designs in a proprietary AI-native file format that links directly into manufacturing workflows, reducing errors and costly board respins. Trace has already secured a partnership with major PCB manufacturer PCBWay and brought Pikkolo Assembly on as its first U.S. fabrication partner, with early users reporting cycle time reductions from roughly 12 weeks to about 2 weeks and fewer production defects.

Adekoya, now serving as CEO at age 20 after leaving a role in big tech, frames Trace as an operating system for hardware design and manufacturing that can support customers ranging from solo engineers to robotics firms, defense contractors, and OEMs under a mix of free and paid plans starting at $29.99 per month. The launch comes as global PCB supply chains are being restructured and hardware companies in sectors like robotics and physical AI face pressure to move from design to manufacturing more quickly, making design tools that tightly integrate with fabrication partners strategically important.

By embedding manufacturing constraints and component data directly into the design environment, Trace aims to influence downstream decisions on sourcing and fabrication while giving engineers a more predictable path from concept to production. Management is positioning this integration as a way to capture value across the hardware development stack and to differentiate from conventional EDA tools, with the company betting that accelerated time-to-market and reduced rework will drive adoption in capital-intensive industries where board iterations are costly.

Early traction with manufacturing partners also suggests Trace could become a channel through which PCB producers and assemblers access new design demand, strengthening Trace’s role as an intermediary platform in the ecosystem. As robotics, autonomous systems, and other hardware-heavy sectors expand, Trace’s ability to shorten iteration cycles from weeks to days may become a lever for customers seeking to manage development risk, compress launch schedules, and align design decisions more tightly with supply chain realities.

The company’s go-to-market strategy combines a low-friction entry point—via a free Ask mode for experimentation—with subscription pricing that can scale across teams, creating potential for recurring revenue as customers embed the tool in daily workflows. For executives evaluating hardware design infrastructure, Trace’s model offers both productivity gains and a closer linkage between engineering and manufacturing, though long-term success will depend on sustaining performance at scale, deepening its manufacturing integrations, and competing effectively against incumbent EDA providers and emerging AI-native rivals.

In the near term, Trace’s focus on AI-native formats and real-time design generation may serve as a differentiator in markets where PCB complexity is rising and design teams are resource constrained. The company’s leadership argues that freeing engineers from low-value, repetitive tasks allows organizations to reallocate talent to higher-impact system-level innovation, a proposition that could resonate with firms under pressure to deliver more complex hardware with fewer cycles and tighter budgets.

If Trace can maintain reported gains in cycle-time reduction and error minimization across a broader customer base, it could strengthen its bargaining position with manufacturers and enterprise buyers alike. That would position Trace not just as a point solution for PCB design but as a strategic layer in the hardware development stack, enabling faster, more coordinated design-to-manufacturing pipelines for customers operating in increasingly competitive and time-sensitive markets.