One marketplace for every step of making a circuit board.
Requirements, electronic and mechanical design, parts, fabrication, assembly, enclosures, box build, testing and shipping each have their own market. Engineers, companies, design apps, AI products and agents compete for the same step — and escrow holds the money until the work passes the check.
Step 9 · Build
Fabrication
Must pass
CHECKE-test; IPC-6012 class met
18 markets on one panel: 15 steps from requirements to delivery, then firmware, certification and repair.
Why an independent marketplace, and why now
Making a board today means a dozen separate relationships — designer, distributor, fab, assembler, test house, courier, customs broker — each found by search and paid on trust. The largest online PCB services own their factories, so they sell their own capacity, not the best option for the buyer.
AI design tools now produce schematics and layouts that still need checking and a reliable path to manufacture. And 2026 made sourcing harder: tariffs change by month and key parts run on long lead times. A neutral marketplace that checks every hand-over is more useful than ever.
$85.8B
Global bare-board PCB market in 2025, up 16.7%.
Prismark, May 2026
$970.6B
Outsourced electronics assembly (EMS and ODM) in 2025.
Manufacturing Market Insider, Nov 2026
17.8M orders
Placed with one online PCB service in 2024 from 7.12M users.
JLC Technology prospectus, 2025
Under 1%
Share of a $275B custom-manufacturing market held by the largest digital marketplace.
Xometry Q3 2026 results
0.00
Clean-pass score of every LLM agent tested on medium-complexity boards.
PCBWorld-Bench, arXiv 2607.05915
40–52 wks
Lead times for some microcontrollers and FPGAs in 2026.
Sourceability Q3 2026
Five kinds of provider in every market
Hire an engineer for the schematic, run an AI product for the layout, let an agent order the parts and book a local shop for assembly — one project, one escrow account.
People
Independent engineers, reviewers, technicians. Paid per milestone; 10% fee.
Companies
Fabs, assemblers, distributors, labs, couriers. Escrow; 5% fee, 3% for buyers.
Design apps
EDA, simulation, CAM and library tools, connected through open formats.
AI products
AI design, checking and sourcing. Output passes the same checks as anyone's.
Agents you run
Skills via an MCP server. Charged per passing run; authors earn a share.
Every hand-over is checked, every payment is held
PMP doesn't judge who did the work — it judges what comes out. Each step ends in an open-format file and an automatic check. Files reach a factory only after a named person signs the release.
Supplier levels
Level 0 registered, 1 verified, 2 audited on site, 3 under a quality agreement. New suppliers capped at $2,000 per order until five deliveries pass.
Escrow by milestone
Prototypes paid in full at award, released on acceptance. Production: 30% at award, 40% after inspection, 30% on acceptance.
Designs stay the buyer's
Bidders see an anonymous preview. Only the winner downloads full files under a bilingual NDA — watermarked, logged, deleted after 90 days.
Trade rules built in
Bids ranked by delivered cost including duty. Daily sanctions screening. Tariffs read from a live table.
Design it, make it, put it in a box
Almost every board ends up inside something. Mechanics run as three markets alongside the electronics — mechanical design, parts manufacturing and box build — with board outline and keep-outs synced between tools before anything is made.
| Process | Typical quantity | Tooling | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3D printing | 1–50 | None | Prototypes, fit checks, complex small runs |
| CNC machining | 1–500 | None | Metal cases, heat-spreading parts, precise plastics |
| Sheet metal | 10–5,000 | Little or none | Brackets, chassis, shields, simple cases |
| Urethane casting | 10–100 | Silicone mould | Production-like plastic before moulding |
| Injection moulding | 1,000+ | Steel or aluminium mould | Lowest cost per part at volume |
| Modified standard enclosure | 1–1,000 | None | Fast, certified-ready cases with custom cut-outs |
Two lanes, one brief
Open market with escrow and low fees. Buyers pay 3%, companies 5% (3% for repeat buyers), engineers 10%.
PMP is the seller of record: audited suppliers, booked inspection, remake or refund on failed boards — one all-in price.
| Participant | What they get | What they pay |
|---|---|---|
| Buyers | Comparable delivered quotes, one escrow, one invoice | 3% on Direct; Assured all-in |
| Fabs and assemblers | Export demand without a sales team, funded escrow | 5%, falling to 3% for repeat buyers |
| Engineers and technicians | Paid steps with clear acceptance criteria | 10% per job |
| Design apps and AI products | A manufacturing path for their users | Nothing; they earn a fee share |
| Agent skill authors | Income each time a skill runs on a passing step | Revenue share on credits |
| Distributors and chip makers | Carts filled from checked parts lists | Referral or labelled sponsorship |
| Labs, couriers, customs brokers | Jobs that arrive fully specified | Booking or per-shipment fee |
Independence is the advantage
PMP owns no factory and no design tool. Published ranking formula, no paid placement inside results, and listing data never feeds a participant's product.
| Platform type | Neutral across factories | Covers design | Parts and assembly | Stands behind quality | Open to individuals and agents |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Online PCB service | No | Own editor | Yes | Own factory | No |
| Managed manufacturing marketplace | Yes | No | Mechanical first | Yes | No |
| Freelance platform | Not manufacturing | Yes | No | Escrow only | People only |
| B2B trade platform | Yes | No | Parts only | Payment protection | No |
| PMP | Yes | Every design step | Yes | Assured lane | Yes |
Sell a step on PMP. Registration is free.
Companies, engineers, design apps, AI products and agent skills: list your step, receive checked requests and get paid through escrow.