Upverter

Upverter, founded in 2010 by Zak Homuth, Stephen Hamer, and Michael Woodworth, originated from their shared background at the University of Waterloo and early careers. The venture began in a basement, evolved through the Y Combinator accelerator's Winter 2011 cohort, and established its headquarters in Toronto. Zak Homuth, who served as CEO, brought experience from founding an electronics manufacturing service and studying Computer Engineering, which directly informed Upverter's mission to simplify hardware development.

The company operates in the electronic design automation (EDA) market, providing a web-based platform for designing printed circuit boards (PCBs). Its target clients range from professional electrical engineers and commercial designers to students and hobbyists. Initially, Upverter's business model included paid professional accounts and a service called Parts Concierge, which generated the majority of its revenue by assisting engineers with component creation. Following its acquisition by Altium in August 2017, Upverter transitioned to a free-to-use model. The entire founding team joined Altium to continue developing the platform.

Upverter's core offering is a fully-cloud, collaborative electronic circuit design system. The platform integrates tools for schematic capture, PCB layout, version control, and team collaboration, functioning similarly to a 'Google Docs for PCBs'. Key features include a drag-and-drop interface, a large library of verified parts, real-time 3D rendering, and the ability to generate manufacturing files like Gerbers and a bill of materials (BOM). This allows users to manage the entire hardware design process, from concept to manufacturing-ready outputs, within a web browser. The system supports importing files from other EDA tools like Eagle and Altium Designer and is designed to serve the development of IoT devices, wearables, and other electronic products.

Keywords: PCB design, electronic design automation, EDA software, schematic capture, circuit design, hardware engineering, collaborative design, web-based EDA, electronics prototyping, Altium, Zak Homuth, printed circuit board layout, electronics manufacturing, bill of materials, Gerber files, version control for hardware, IoT device design, Y Combinator, electronics design system, online PCB tool