Cybord provides visual AI component analytics solution for the electronic manufacturing ecosystem. Cybord’s solution enables 100% analysis of all electronic components placed on PCBA to ensure quality, authenticity, and forensic traceability to support OEMs and EMSs globally Pulse 2.0 interviewed Cybord CEO Oshri Cohen to learn more about the company.
Oshri Cohen’s Background
What is Oshri Cohen’s background? Cohen said:
“I bring 20 years of experience in supply chain management, having held roles such as Vice President of Supply Chain at NVIDIA and Mellanox Technologies. Throughout my career, I’ve faced firsthand the complex challenges of logistics, procurement, and the high costs associated with recalls and reworks. At NVIDIA, I oversaw the manufacturing of over 10 million boards annually, which provided me a unique perspective on the critical importance of quality control and traceability in electronics manufacturing. These challenges inspired me to explore solutions that could tackle these issues from a fresh angle.”
Formation Of The Company
How did the idea for the company come together? Cohen shared:
“The idea for Cybord emerged from a crisis encountered by our CTO, Dr. Eyal Weiss, while leading a multi-million-dollar defense project. After years of development, his team finally began deploying the system in the field, only to discover that many units were failing due to a faulty capacitor, which cost only three cents. This experience revealed a significant gap in the supply chain: components weren’t inspected before boards were assembled. As the lifeblood of electronics, overlooked faulty components can lead to costly crises like these or can even endanger end-users in high-stakes industries such as automotive and medical devices. Eyal saw the opportunity to provide the first line of defense for OEMs, leading to the founding of Cybord in 2019.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Cohen explained:
“Cybord’s visual AI analytics platform, includes software solutions that are installed on SMT lines and integrate with pick-and-place and automated optical inspection (AOI) machines along the manufacturing line to provide top and bottom inspection to 100% of electronic components. The three main Cybord solutions are – QCI (Quality Component Inspection), TCI (Traceability Component Inspection), and RTI (Real Time Interception). The QCI solution analyzes the bottom-side images of components in near real time to surgically detect and alert about even the most subtle abnormalities including defects, damage, corrosion, authenticity and structural irregulates, and pinpoint components suspected of quality issues throughout the supply chain.”
“Cybord also offers visual traceability verification capabilities with the TCI solution, which runs top-side analysis of components to identify the country of origin, decode chipmarkings, and verify deviations in documented information. The newest Cybord solution, which is planned to be introduced in 2025, is called RTI, which prevents defective components from advancing in the manufacturing line by identifying and dumping non-compliant components before they can be placed by the machine, within milliseconds, providing AI quality assurance and significantly reducing rework and scrap rates.”
Challenges Faced
What challenges have Cohen and the team face in building the company? Cohen acknowledged:
“In this industry, manufacturers (EMSs) are generally very wary of making changes to their manufacturing line, so when designing the Cybord solution the team knew they needed to come up with something that would seamlessly integrate into existing workflows in order to mitigate their reluctance. As a result, Cybord developed software solutions, not hardware, that integrate into industry-standard machines as a parallel solution, without impacting any line cycle time or layout—all with zero capital investment requirements.”
Evolution Of The Company’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Cohen noted:
“Cybord initially started by offering its QCI and TCI solutions to manufacturers, which saw great success. Over time, demand emerged from our customers for a solution to prevent faulty components from being placed on a board in the first place, as their removal becomes more complicated and costly in subsequent assembly line stages. That’s why Cybord developed RTI, to intercept defective parts in real time, reacting to issues in a few milliseconds and dumping them before they are assembled onto a PCBA. By detecting and rejecting defective parts before the mounting process, Cybord’s solution enables manufacturers to nip issues in the bud, ultimately lowering costs.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Cohen cited:
“Cybord has partnered with leading manufacturers around the world including Flex and Siemens to integrate into over 60 manufacturing lines. Through this extensive adoption, Cybord’s platform inspects millions of electronic components daily, contributing to its database of nearly five billion components and counting.”
Funding
When asking Cohen about the company’s funding details, he revealed:
“In September, Cybord announced an $8.7 million Series A funding led by Capri Ventures with participation from Ocean Azul Partners and existing investors IL Ventures and NextLeap Ventures, among other new and current investors. That funding will be used to accelerate global expansion of the Cybord solution.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future company goals? Cohen emphasized:
“In the coming year, Cybord hopes to expand the global integration of AI in electronics manufacturing even further by increasing the adoption of the platform.”
“Cybord is excited to lead the next generation of electronics manufacturing by modernizing manufacturing practices and offering manufacturers an avenue to be on the cutting-edge technologically amid the AI wave transforming the industry.”
“Additionally, Cybord is looking forward to continuing to boost revenue for EMSs by reducing the number of defects in PCBAs that lead to costly scrap rates, rework rates, and recalls, which allows for capital previously wasted on these issues to be redirected.”
Additional Thoughts
Anything else? Cohen concluded:
“With trade regulations becoming increasingly stringent, especially amidst the U.S./China trade war, manufacturers have faced overnight restrictions on component country of origin, percentage requirements for manufacturing in a specific country, and other challenging requirements. Cybord’s TCI solution provides manufacturers with a reliable way to identify and verify the origin of their components, enabling compliance with necessary restrictions and the ability to prove compliance to regulators. Not only does Cybord deliver 99.9% accuracy in detecting faulty components, but it also provides customers with a more complete, cost effective, and highly transparent inspection process to ensure they are aware of their ‘unknown unknowns.’”
