We won the Industry 4.0 Award 2026

CircuitNinja makes prototype printed circuit boards in Prague. On Wednesday, 7 October 2026, we received the main prize of the whole Czech-Slovak Industry 4.0 Award (Cena za Průmysl 4.0). We also won the In-company Implementation category, ahead of Škoda Auto in second place and Hestego in third.

About the award

The Industry 4.0 Award is run jointly by the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic (SP ČR) and the Slovak Alliance for Innovation Economy (SAPIE). It recognises projects that bring automation, robotics, data and other digital technologies together inside a company. About thirty projects from Czech and Slovak companies entered this year.

The award has two categories. In-company Implementation is for companies showing technology they run in their own operations. System Integrator is for suppliers who build solutions for other companies. That category went to Coral Construction Technologies in Czechia and PowereX in Slovakia. The special jury prize went to Smart DRS by Sensoneo.

Jiří Holoubek, a board member of the Confederation of Industry, said of this year's entries (our translation):

"Real added value comes where a company uses data flows to connect automation, robotics and other advanced digital technologies with clearly defined internal processes…"

What we brought to the competition

We make prototype printed circuit boards in Prague. We built the production line ourselves, and our own software runs it. A customer uploads Gerber data, and the system checks it and prices the board automatically. It then schedules the order into production and tracks it until it ships. That is how we can make a prototype in as little as one production day, while boards elsewhere usually take weeks.

We take the award as a sign that fast, automated electronics manufacturing in Europe works at a small scale too. Large companies have established lines and processes; we started from scratch.

In the press

• Hospodářské noviny, 21 October 2026: "Standard je 14 dní, u nás to jde přes noc." ("The standard is 14 days, we do it overnight"), by Michael Mareš. In Czech, for subscribers.
• Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic: Industry 4.0 Award winners announced, main prize to CircuitNinja (in Czech)
• BusinessInfo.cz: Cena za Průmysl 4.0 za rok 2026 zná své vítěze. Hlavní cenu získala CircuitNinja (in Czech)
• Technika a trh: Cena za Průmysl 4.0 zná vítěze. Hlavní ocenění získala CircuitNinja (in Czech)
• Photos from the ceremony: the Confederation of Industry album on Flickr

What's next

A year ago we were named Startup of the Year 2025. This year's award shows we have moved from an idea to working production.

Want to try it? Upload your Gerber data and you will see the price and the delivery date straight away. If you export from KiCad or Altium Designer, our developer guides walk you through it.