diff --git a/build-android.sh b/build-android.sh
index 8bc70f18..9656b7e2 100755
--- a/build-android.sh
+++ b/build-android.sh
@@ -109,7 +109,10 @@ else
     exit 1
 fi
 
+# Bootstrap vcpkg
 checkout_vcpkg "${gator_dir}" "${use_system_binaries}"
+# and perfetto
+checkout_perfetto "${gator_dir}"
 
 # check cmake exe
 cmake_exe=$(validate_and_return_cmake_exe "${cmake_exe}")
diff --git a/build-common.sh b/build-common.sh
index 5a6ea76d..10e9c655 100644
--- a/build-common.sh
+++ b/build-common.sh
@@ -105,6 +105,24 @@ checkout_vcpkg() {
     fi
 }
 
+# Fetch perfetto
+checkout_perfetto() {
+    local perfetto_commit="7e8d6801dbf73936a916dbcd8ed06a758c8d989e" # v25.0
+    local root="${1}"
+    # is gator git repo from github?
+    if [ -d "${root}/.git" ]; then
+        echo "Fetching perfetto git submodule"
+        git submodule update --init
+    # checkout manually?
+    elif [ ! -d "${root}/ext/perfetto/.git" ]; then
+        echo "Cloning perfetto git repo into '${root}/ext/perfetto/'"
+        git clone https://github.com/google/perfetto.git "${root}/ext/perfetto/"
+        echo "Switching to correct commit"
+        git -C "${root}/ext/perfetto/" clean -ffxd
+        git -C "${root}/ext/perfetto/" reset --hard "${perfetto_commit}"
+    fi
+}
+
 # source root
 gator_dir=`dirname "$0"`
 gator_dir=`realpath "${gator_dir}"`
diff --git a/build-linux.sh b/build-linux.sh
index 18dc067b..8b6354c5 100755
--- a/build-linux.sh
+++ b/build-linux.sh
@@ -107,6 +107,8 @@ fi
 
 # Bootstrap vcpkg
 checkout_vcpkg "${gator_dir}" "${use_system_binaries}"
+# and perfetto
+checkout_perfetto "${gator_dir}"
 
 # check cmake exe
 cmake_exe=$(validate_and_return_cmake_exe "${cmake_exe}")