Austin AI startup Circuit raises $30M in major angel round
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Austin-based Circuit, an AI startup co-founded by former Silicon Labs CEO Tyson Tuttle, raised $30 million from angel investors to build an AI software for manufacturing and service operations.
Why it matters: It's one of Texas' largest angel rounds — an early-stage phase where individual investors pitch in — and a bet that AI can help manufacturers capture and scale institutional knowledge.
The big picture: Manufacturers and service companies rely heavily on know-how that often lives in scattered manuals — or in the heads of veteran employees.
- A Deloitte study from 2024 estimates that as many as 1.9 million open manufacturing jobs could be left unfilled by 2033.
- Andrew Peters, Circuit co-founder and chief product and revenue officer, points to recent comments from Ford CEO Jim Farley, who said his company has 5,000 factory-floor roles paying more than six figures that it cannot fill.
What they're saying: "You've got leaders in this space ringing the bell," Peters tells Axios.
- "If we don't figure this out, it's going to be really hard for these sectors of the economy that are crucial to us as a nation."
How it works: Circuit's AI software turns technical manuals and other documentation into step-by-step workflows to guide a team through troubleshooting, quoting and field work, Peters says.
- Circuit customers include Austin-based wholesale furniture maker Four Hands and water treatment company Culligan.
- Four Hands, whose products are sold at retailers like Crate & Barrel and CB2, uses Circuit to consolidate terabytes of product manuals and diagrams.
- "We can read through those terabytes of information and get them an accurate answer to whatever that customer support question is," Peters says.
The company also works with industrial pipe, valve and fitting distributors, according to Peters.
- Salespeople at large valve manufacturers may need to understand thousands of product configurations when quoting equipment for oil rigs or factories — where mistakes can be costly.
- Circuit's platform analyzes thousands of pages of technical documents — some exceeding 2,000 pages — to help sales teams make decisions.
Zoom in: Tuttle, Peters and other co-founders have been building Circuit over the past 18 months, growing the team to roughly 30 employees who work out of a house in Clarksville.
Follow the money: Circuit's $30 million raise stands out in a market where angel group investments often top out in the low millions.
- Investors in Circuit's latest funding round include high-profile names like longtime venture capitalist Jim Breyer, SWBC chairman and co-founder Charlie Amato and Lew Cirne, founder of software analytics company New Relic.
What's next: The company plans to use the angel round to expand its product roadmap and scale its go-to-market operations, including regional sales hires, according to Peters.