Fundamental Research Labs secures $33M to build next-gen AI agents

Fundamental Research Labs (formerly Altera) has raised $33 million in Series A funding led by Prosus Ventures, with participation from notable investors including Stripe CEO Patrick Collison. The San Francisco-based startup, founded by former MIT faculty member Dr. Robert Yang, focuses on AI agents that can collaborate on complex, long-term tasks in several domains. Around the time it raised its seed funding round last year, the company was working on AI-powered gaming companions that could play Minecraft alongside humans.

Currently, Fundamental Research Labs reports that it is prioritizing multi-agent systems, while preserving its mission to bring frontier research to consumer products. The company's spreadsheet-specific agent "Shortcut" outperformed first-year analysts from McKinsey and Goldman Sachs in 89% of cases during blind studies, as judged by managers from those same firms. The agent is also capable of completing championship-level tasks in under 10 minutes with an accuracy of over 80%. Meanwhile, their general-purpose desktop agent "Fairies" automates everyday tasks directly on users' computers. Fairies allows users to connect apps, ask questions about connected knowledge bases, and have the assistant set up meetings in connected calendars.

With over $40 million in total funding, the company plans to expand beyond productivity apps into physical robotics, aiming to build what they call "digital humans" with genuine autonomy and collaborative intelligence.