Fundamental Research Labs, a pioneering applied AI research company formerly known as Altera, has successfully raised $30 million in a Series A funding round. This funding round, led by Prosus, included participation from other big names like Stripe co-founder and CEO Patrick Collison. With this latest round of funding, the company has raised more than $40 million total.
Dr. Robert Yang, a former MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) faculty member, is the founder of Fundamental Research Labs. The lab’s work is dedicated not only to solving challenging physical problems, but to pushing the boundaries of embodied artificial intelligence. The company has already begun monetizing its innovations, charging users after a seven-day trial period and generating revenue through its AI agents.
Yang stressed that the company is serious about investigating multiple application models. “We are working on productivity apps now because that is where the most value is created,” he stated. You can still do this, make a boatload of cash along the way and have smartly scaled your team and tech. Longer-term, we hope these physical issues are figured out so we can focus on embodiment.
The company has established several specialized teams: a games team, a prosumer team focused on app development, a core research team, and a platform team. This eclectic makeup gives Fundamental Research Labs the opportunity to champion several layers of AI technology at once.
Sandeep Bakshi, an investor who joined the round, emphasized what set the venture apart. We’ve seen a lot of multimodal early stage startups, but what really impressed here was a small, very mission-driven team obsessed with the idea of digital humans with real use cases. He stressed that their Fairies and, most recently, Shortcut launches are more than just demos. They are leading the way in demonstrating how AI can enhance human workers.
Bakshi was equally exuberant about the quality of the team leading Fundamental Research Labs’ vision. What was unique with Fundamental Research Labs was not only the ambition of the vision but the caliber of the team behind it. More fundamentally, they attract and retain the best and brightest academic minds in the world. Next, they turn that talent into the products the world needs. This makes it a particularly uniquely compelling venture opportunity for us.
Prior to this Series A round, the company previously raised $9 million in a seed funding round completed last year. First Spark Ventures and Patron were the lead investors, with additional fund from a16z SPEEDRUN and Eric Schmidt.
For Dr. Yang, that picture doesn’t stop at pursuing smarter software with Fundamental Research Labs. His goal is to create robots that truly reflect the cutting-edge AI technology they contain. Through these initiatives and others, the company is committed to making meaningful impacts on the tech ecosystem at large as well as in the wider community.