Cortical Ventures is an AI-focused venture capital firm founded in 2021 by operators with deep AI/ML experience. It invents, incubates, and invests in early-stage companies driving the AI revolution, with emphasis on Physical AI, production-ready AI systems, and AI for Good. Current official strategy leads pre-seed and seed; prior Series A/B follow-ons do not imply general late-stage entry.
Founded 2021
Type Venture capital 1 Cortical Ventures Fund I LP 2022-02-09 2022-02-09 — USD50m launch disclosure/offering; February10,2023 amendment USD40,379,950 sold,USD9,620,050 remaining, firstsale2021-12-30. Not verified USD50m final closed/AUM.
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$1M $100K – $5M Boston, Massachusetts $1M $100K – $5M San Francisco Bay Area — $100K – $5M Cambridge, Massachusetts — $100K – $5M San Francisco, California · San Francisco Bay Area — — – —
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team@apexlogos.ai · 24 hours ago
Investment-fund research reviewed 2026-10-06. Publicly identified funds, dates, amounts and fundraising status are below. Undisclosed commitments remain unknown; this is not a complete register of private SPVs or parallel entities.
Fund size and stage strategy
| Vehicle / evidence | Amount and status | Date / source |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Inaugural AI fund, later identified as Cortical Ventures Fund I LP | Firm announced a USD 50M fund at launch. Announcement does not explicitly establish a final close. | 2022-02-09, [firm-issued release](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cortical-ventures-launches-with-50m-ai-focused-fund-301478767.html ) |
| Cortical Ventures Fund I LP; legal formation year 2021 | Original offering: USD 50M target; USD 0 sold, first sale yet to occur. | 2021-10-04, [SEC Form D](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1884750/000188475021000001/xslFormDX01/primary_doc.xml ) |
| Same Fund I | USD 50M total offering; USD 40,379,950 sold; USD 9,620,050 remaining; 42 investors; first sale 2021-12-30. This is filed subscriptions/offering data, not portfolio valuation or AUM. | 2023-02-10, [SEC Form D/A](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1884750/000188475023000001/xslFormDX01/primary_doc.xml ) |
This is the **latest-known primary fund evidence found**, not an assertion that no newer fund exists. Searches for Fund II and newer funds through 2026 did not identify a primary announcement. [Fundraising Fox](https://fundraisingfox.com/investors/cortical-ventures ) and [Seedtable](https://seedtable.com/investors/cortical-ventures ) list **Cortical Ventures Opportunity - SIC LLC** (Fox gives vintage 2022), but no verified size or closing announcement was obtained. This possible opportunity/SPV vehicle must remain distinct from Fund I and merits SEC/ADV follow-up. The firm's website says its investors raised over USD 1B for companies they built/helped build; this is **not Cortical's fund size or AUM**. No verified total AUM or official current check range was found.
Current mandate: the [official site](https://cortical.vc/ ) says it leads pre-seed and seed, across Physical AI (robotic dexterity, skills and data), AI deployment infrastructure and applications, and AI for Good including defense. A [firm-controlled LinkedIn profile](https://www.linkedin.com/company/cortical-ventures ) describes leading/co-leading pre-seed through Series A and formation in 2021; this is broader than today's website. Historic Weaviate Series B participation is a supported follow-on transaction, not evidence of a general Series B entry mandate.
Funds recorded in Adex after this review:
| Fund | Disclosed amount | Announcement / filing date |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Cortical Ventures Fund I LP | Undisclosed / unverified | 2022-02-09 | SHOW MORE
team@apexlogos.ai · yesterday
Match research 2026-10-06 / CorticalVentures / sha256:f4ae8c016d71fcc4b13be2f942d98c9ef10097f5ca9fae4b733a81a255b066dd / part 2 of 2
Imported completed research. Baseline Adex/Signal statements describe prior state, not independent verification. Retain cited attribution, date, currency and classification caveats.
| **Weaviate / formerly SeMI Technologies** | Open-source AI-native vector database for embedding search. Foundational AI/data infrastructure; include as enabling software deep tech under a broad definition, separately from hardware/scientific investments. | Firm launch says Cortical co-led SeMI financing. Official Weaviate release confirms participation as an existing investor in USD 50M Series B led by Index, 2023-04-21. [Firm launch](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cortical-ventures-launches-with-50m-ai-focused-fund-301478767.html ), [Weaviate release](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/weaviate-raises-50-million-series-b-funding-to-meet-soaring-demand-for-ai-native-vector-database-technology-301803296.html ). |
Other official-site portfolio logos include Alpha-Z, Airwave, Claryo, E2B, fal, Immerok and Predator AI. Their current branding supports portfolio association, but this handoff does not independently establish investment dates, rounds or specific physical/scientific technology for every logo. The [portfolio page](https://cortical.vc/portfolio/ ) yielded sparse extracted text; the homepage was more informative.
## Neurotech assessment
**No verified neurotech investment found in the sources checked.** Checked the exact baseline, Signal firm and GP profiles, official homepage/portfolio, and searches pairing the firm name with neurotech, neuroscience, brain-computer interfaces, EEG and neuromodulation.
Neo Cybernetica is the closest adjacent case: its funding release mentions neuroscience and cognitive psychology as inputs to cybernetics research. It does not establish a brain interface, neural recording/stimulation device, clinical neural therapy or biological neural-computing product, so do not tag it as direct neurotech on that basis. General AI/robotics are not automatically neurotechnology. [Neo release, 2022-02-09](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/neo-cybernetica-secures-30m-seed-round-led-by-nea-301478585.html ).
A secondary [Venture Capital Archive profile](https://venturecapitalarchive.com/venture-funds/cortical-ventures-cortical-vc ) claims a neuroscience/AI thesis; no primary corroboration was found. Search hits for **Cortical Labs** concern a separate biological-computing company, not this venture firm; do not conflate names. No prior Intel Capital/DataRobot partner investment is counted as Cortical Ventures investment.
## Concrete review notes and remaining uncertainty
1. Add fund information with separate fields/notes for USD 50M announced offering versus USD 40,379,950 reported sold in February 2023; do not mark USD 50M final closed/AUM without newer evidence. Search the possible Opportunity - SIC LLC separately.
2. Use current pre-seed/seed website strategy as strongest evidence; retain historical Series A/B follow-ons separately. Do not promote Signal check estimates to confirmed firm policy.
3. Review principal duplication (Misha/Mike), and use conventional capitalization for team names after identity confirmation.
4. Add missing Kyber Labs lead pre-seed evidence; complete Spear seed date as 2025-07-25, with USD 2.3M sourced to Reuters rather than an undated entry.
5. HyperWrite is the OthersideAI product. The investee's 2023-03-09 announcement explicitly says Cortical **co-led** USD 2.8M with Active Capital, contradicting baseline `isLead: false`. Review entity mapping and avoid double-counting brand/company. [Official OthersideAI release](https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2023/03/09/2624023/0/en/OthersideAI-Raises-2-8M-to-Make-Writing-Faster-and-Easier-with-Personalized-AI.html ).
6. The baseline 2020 OthersideAI entry predates the stated firm founding; the cited article does not establish Cortical participation. Quarantine for attribution review. [Cited 2020 article](https://techcrunch.com/2020/11/12/othersideai-raises-2-6m-to-let-gpt-3-write-your-emails-for-you/ ).
7. Weaviate's shared round metadata mentions Zetta Venture Partners in one evidence string; company release independently confirms Cortical, so keep distinct participant attributions. Do not infer Cortical led this Series B.
8. Neurelo, Integration App, Dataroomhq and Rupert remain baseline claims outside the focused round verification here; ordinary database connectivity, app integration and enterprise analytics should not become deep-tech/neurotech solely because they use AI. Additional round-level verification is needed before editing those entries.
All linked sources were accessed **2026-10-06**. Dated publications/filings are dated inline; official-site and directory pages without clear publication dates are treated as undated. Public web extraction and Signal sign-in limits prevent an exhaustive private portfolio/fund audit. No code changes were made; application tests were not relevant to this research-only file. SHOW MORE
team@apexlogos.ai · yesterday
Match research 2026-10-06 / CorticalVentures / sha256:f4ae8c016d71fcc4b13be2f942d98c9ef10097f5ca9fae4b733a81a255b066dd / part 1 of 2
Imported completed research. Baseline Adex/Signal statements describe prior state, not independent verification. Retain cited attribution, date, currency and classification caveats.
# Cortical Ventures
- Exact ID: `CorticalVentures`
- Canonical Adex URL: https://adex.page/firms/CorticalVentures
- Research date: 2026-10-06
- Scope: Research handoff only; no Adex or database changes made.
Cortical Ventures is an operator-led AI venture firm founded by Jeremy Achin and Igor Taber. Its current website explicitly prioritizes leading pre-seed and seed investments. Strongly supported deep-tech examples include robotics/cybernetics, artificial-muscle robotic manipulation, concrete materials optimization and maritime acoustic sensing/AI. No verified direct neurotech investment was found. Its publicly announced inaugural fund was USD 50 million, but a subsequent SEC filing records only USD 40,379,950 sold against the USD 50 million offering; a fully closed USD 50 million fund should not be assumed. [Official fund announcement, 2022-02-09](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cortical-ventures-launches-with-50m-ai-focused-fund-301478767.html ); [SEC amendment, 2023-02-10](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1884750/000188475023000001/xslFormDX01/primary_doc.xml ); [firm website, undated](https://cortical.vc/ ).
## Adex baseline and Signal starting evidence
The exact-ID snapshot `data/research/_sources/CorticalVentures.adex.json`, retrieved 2026-10-06 through read-only Search, describes a firm founded in 2021, focused on Physical AI, production-ready AI and AI for Good. It cites https://cortical.vc/ , https://signal.nfx.com/firms/cortical-ventures and https://goldi.ai/intelligence/vc/cortical-ventures from research dated 2026-09-14. Its firm investor profile has no check minimum, maximum or sweet spot. Locations are Boston, Cambridge and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Baseline investment claims are Neurelo (USD 5M, 2024), Integration App (USD 3.5M, 2023-11-07), Weaviate (USD 50M Series B, 2023-04-21), HyperWrite (USD 2.8M, 2023-03-09), AICrete (USD 4M seed, 2022-09-21), Neo Cybernetica (USD 30M seed, 2022-02-09), OthersideAI (USD 2.6M, 2020), Dataroomhq (USD 3.5M), Rupert (USD 8M) and Spear (USD 2.3M). All entries show `isLead: false`; several have incomplete dates. These are starting evidence, not independent verification. Findings below verify the most relevant investments and identify corrections.
[NFX Signal firm profile](https://signal.nfx.com/firms/cortical-ventures ) was directly read, not merely search-index accessible. It displays Boston/Cambridge/SF Bay Area and Jeremy Achin/Igor Taber as GPs, Sheamus McGovern as venture partner and Misha Obolonskyi as principal. Each displayed investor has a USD 100,000–5 million range and USD 1.5 million sweet spot. Seed/Series A AI and robotics appear in rankings. [Igor Taber's profile](https://signal.nfx.com/investors/igor-taber ) and [Jeremy Achin's profile](https://signal.nfx.com/investors/jeremy-achin ) were also directly read; both display USD 50M as current fund size. Individual investment lists and introduction paths require sign-in. Treat profile ranges, rankings and fund labels as unverified directory claims; they do not resolve the SEC offering discrepancy.
The official website confirms the same four-person team, but uses **Mike Obolonskyi**, whereas Signal uses Misha. Adex contains both `MISHAOBOLONSKYI` and `MikeObolonskyi` roles; review for a duplicate rather than assuming two principals. [Firm site](https://cortical.vc/ ); [Signal](https://signal.nfx.com/firms/cortical-ventures ).
## Fund size and stage strategy
| Vehicle / evidence | Amount and status | Date / source |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Inaugural AI fund, later identified as Cortical Ventures Fund I LP | Firm announced a USD 50M fund at launch. Announcement does not explicitly establish a final close. | 2022-02-09, [firm-issued release](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cortical-ventures-launches-with-50m-ai-focused-fund-301478767.html ) |
| Cortical Ventures Fund I LP; legal formation year 2021 | Original offering: USD 50M target; USD 0 sold, first sale yet to occur. | 2021-10-04, [SEC Form D](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1884750/000188475021000001/xslFormDX01/primary_doc.xml ) |
| Same Fund I | USD 50M total offering; USD 40,379,950 sold; USD 9,620,050 remaining; 42 investors; first sale 2021-12-30. This is filed subscriptions/offering data, not portfolio valuation or AUM. | 2023-02-10, [SEC Form D/A](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1884750/000188475023000001/xslFormDX01/primary_doc.xml ) |
This is the **latest-known primary fund evidence found**, not an assertion that no newer fund exists. Searches for Fund II and newer funds through 2026 did not identify a primary announcement. [Fundraising Fox](https://fundraisingfox.com/investors/cortical-ventures ) and [Seedtable](https://seedtable.com/investors/cortical-ventures ) list **Cortical Ventures Opportunity - SIC LLC** (Fox gives vintage 2022), but no verified size or closing announcement was obtained. This possible opportunity/SPV vehicle must remain distinct from Fund I and merits SEC/ADV follow-up. The firm's website says its investors raised over USD 1B for companies they built/helped build; this is **not Cortical's fund size or AUM**. No verified total AUM or official current check range was found.
Current mandate: the [official site](https://cortical.vc/ ) says it leads pre-seed and seed, across Physical AI (robotic dexterity, skills and data), AI deployment infrastructure and applications, and AI for Good including defense. A [firm-controlled LinkedIn profile](https://www.linkedin.com/company/cortical-ventures ) describes leading/co-leading pre-seed through Series A and formation in 2021; this is broader than today's website. Historic Weaviate Series B participation is a supported follow-on transaction, not evidence of a general Series B entry mandate.
## Verified deep-tech investments
Round amounts below are total company financing, **not Cortical's individual check**. Technology classification is an assessment based on cited descriptions.
| Company | Technology rationale and classification | Cortical attribution / round evidence |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Neo Cybernetica** | Novel cybernetics drawing on robotics, simulation, ML/reinforcement learning and cognitive/neuroscience research. Strong deep-tech; exact product was undisclosed at the 2022 announcement. | Company release names Cortical among participants in USD 30M seed led by NEA, 2022-02-09. Cortical's launch release also identifies its earlier pre-seed investment; dates/checks undisclosed. [Company release](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/neo-cybernetica-secures-30m-seed-round-led-by-nea-301478585.html ), [firm launch](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cortical-ventures-launches-with-50m-ai-focused-fund-301478767.html ). |
| **Kyber Labs** | Novel artificial-muscle technology for robotic manipulation; robotics hardware and control rather than ordinary software. | Foley, legal counsel to the investor, confirms Cortical **led** a pre-seed round; amount undisclosed. Publication 2023-08-17, not necessarily exact closing date. [Foley announcement](https://www.foley.com/news/2023/08/foley-represents-cortical-ventures/ ). |
| **AICrete** | ML optimization of concrete formulations using physical-material experimentation, with data automation and planned robotic systems. Applied materials/climate deep tech; avoid suggesting the 2022 platform was already a commercial robot. | Official investee release names Cortical as participant in USD 4M seed, led by CLEAR Ventures and VoLo Earth Ventures, 2022-09-21. [AICrete release](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sustainable-and-ai-concrete-startup-aicrete-announces-4-million-seed-funding-301629768.html ). |
| **Spear AI** | Hardware sensors plus specialized underwater acoustic-data preparation and AI infrastructure, with maritime defense/commercial uses. Strong applied sensing/AI deep-tech rationale. | Official company announcement identifies Cortical and Scare the Bear in completed seed round, 2025-07-25; amount not stated there. Reuters reporting republished 2025-07-27 gives USD 2.3M raised from the two firms. [Company announcement](https://spear.ai/newsroom/seed-funding ), [Reuters via Marine Technology News](https://www.marinetechnologynews.com/news/spear-raises-funding-apply-651418 ). | SHOW MORE
team@apexlogos.ai · 23 days ago
MATCH 
Zetta Venture Partners
Weaviate$50M · 2023-04-21
Spear
Integration App
HyperWrite
AICrete
Neo Cybernetica
Rupert
Dataroomhq