Kode Dot Manufacturing: Made in Spain, 15 Minutes From Our Office

Kode Dot is a pocket-size, open-source device for makers, hackers and geeks: a handheld you can program, extend with modules and use to talk to the electronics around you. More than 10,000 makers backed it on Kickstarter, and that scale changed which factories would open their doors to us.

One of the first questions any hardware buyer should ask is where the device actually gets built. For the Kode Dot the answer is Spain, and that is not a sticker on the box; it is a quality-control decision we made on purpose.

Scale opened the doors of tier-one factories

In January we moved into the final production setup and began closing agreements with our European production partners. Manufacturing in Europe was always on our roadmap; the size of the campaign is what raised the ceiling.

That scale opened doors to tier-one professional suppliers. We are not just ordering parts: we are working with factories that already produce some of the most iconic maker tools sitting on your desk today.

The work started where quality is decided: PCBA quality control with Draco Systems in Barcelona, learning the inspection discipline of a professional SMT line. That same discipline runs through the rest of this story, from the first assembled Kode Dot boards onwards.

Versa Design SL: a factory 15 minutes from our office

In February we signed our final manufacturing partner: Versa Design SL, one of the largest and most capable electronics manufacturers in Spain. They provide the scale and the precision a production run of this magnitude demands.

And they bring one thing no overseas factory can match: their facility is 15 minutes from our office in Valencia. When boards carrying the ESP32-P4, the newest silicon inside the Kode Dot go down their line, we can be standing next to the machine that same morning.

Why local manufacturing is a quality decision

Total supervision. The founding team is physically on the factory floor, personally checking that every single unit meets the standard we promised.

Agility. Quality control and engineering tweaks happen in real time, not over weeks of transoceanic emails. When something needs a change, we see it at the machine and resolve it on the spot.

Commitment. You gave us your trust, and we do not plan on letting you down: the device that ships has to be the best maker device on the market.

Two new makers named Pablo

The same quality bet explains our first two major hires, who happen to share a name. One Pablo is designing the unified software ecosystem around the Kode Dot, so creating with it feels fluid, fun and connected to other makers.

The other Pablo lives closer to the metal: firmware efficiency, OTA updates and the foundational libraries your future projects will build on.

Building at home, with partners we can visit before lunch, is how we keep that promise checkable week after week. The Kode Dot is available for pre-order while production ramps up.

First shared with our backers in the Kickstarter update of February 26, 2026, building on the Kickstarter update of January 30, 2026.