Exclusive: 8VC-backed Flux secures $37 million to enable intuitive electronics coding
In 2018, Matthias Wagner was in charge of a 100-person Burning Man camp known as Hotel California.
8VC partner Francisco Gimenez recalls it vividly—not only as his first encounter with Wagner, but also due to what Wagner had constructed.
“Matthias was the camp leader,” Gimenez stated. “He oversaw the building of a three-story hangout structure they designed from interlocking Lincoln logs. The plans were open-sourced and available on GitHub. Matthias wasn’t launching a company; he was still at Facebook. But you could see the man had the ability to run something remarkable.”
They would meet again a year later at a wedding of a mutual friend. Wagner wasn’t making a business pitch, but he had been observing the ascent of design software company Figma and was astonished that no one had created a similar tool for the vast electronics market. Wagner has experience building various electronics, ranging from sound systems to modular off-grid solar setups.
“Around 2020, Figma saw its initial breakthrough, and it became apparent you could develop a CAD tool in the browser,” says Wagner, who is cheerful and German. “It hit me: The software for designing electronics hasn’t gotten better in my entire life. And obviously, today, we have superior concepts for creating software that is more user-friendly, collaborative, and automated. We can also leverage machine learning. The supply chain is now accessible even in my Oakland backyard; I can fabricate anything I desire. I don’t need to be [a large corporation].”
Gimenez was convinced and wrote the first investment check for Wagner’s startup, named Flux, in 2019. Now, following years of seeking product-market fit, Flux appears to have discovered its trajectory: The company has recently surpassed one million registrations and secured $37 million in funding, has learned exclusively. This sum includes a $27 million Series B round led by 8VC in January, with contributions from Bain Capital Ventures, Liquid 2 Ventures, and Outsiders Fund. Outsiders Fund led the firm’s $10 million Series A in August, which BCV co-led.
Wagner stressed that electronics design is particularly challenging and time-consuming because the tools are outdated by decades. Although the most seasoned, traditional engineers are still committed to legacy software, the worldwide DIY electronics sector is enormous—some projections indicate it could be a $1 trillion market. Even professional engineers face constraints.
“The population of electrical engineers is actually decreasing, with fewer graduates each year,” Gimenez noted. “Despite that, the quantity of hardware in our daily lives is growing exponentially—every phone here, the vending machines outside. It’s an immense field that’s difficult to thoroughly assess because it revolves entirely around the volume of hardware being produced.”
Flux required approximately five years to generate revenue, a point both Wagner and Gimenez openly acknowledge. Wagner is confident that Flux will eventually contribute to a transformation that is only beginning to take shape: the ability to intuitively “vibe code” not just applications, but complete, sophisticated devices.
“We are moving toward a total upheaval of everything,” Wagner informed . “If you can summon an iPhone-caliber device into being with a prompt, why would anyone still visit a store and spend hours searching? Everything is transformed if you can simply describe an object, produce it, and if that item costs less than a store-bought version… Our aspiration is for electronics to become as accessible and empowering as software is now.”
See you Monday,
Allie Garfinkle
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