Startups
Fundamental Research Labs
San Francisco Bay Area, California, United States · Menlo Park, California, United States
San Francisco Bay Area AI research and product company led by computational neuroscientist Guangyu Robert Yang. Established as Altera.AL in December 2023 following the earlier LyfeGame name, it adopted Fundamental Research Labs in May 2025; it is distinct from Intel’s Altera FPGA semiconductor business. The company develops autonomous and collaborative AI agents, drawing on computational neuroscience and multi-agent learning. Its current Shortcut product is an AI Excel analyst for spreadsheet modelling and analytical workflows. Earlier products and research include the Fairies computer-use assistant and Project Sid, a study of social collaboration among large populations of agents in game environments. Pivot 0.5, announced in 2026, is a specialised spreadsheet and financial reasoning model built through post-training Qwen3.5-27B. Its ambitions for digital humans and self-awareness are research goals rather than evidence of machine consciousness; product benchmark comparisons are company evaluations. Yang previously served on MIT’s computational neuroscience faculty. Publicly identified founders include Shuying Luo, Andrew Ahn and Nico Christie; Christie announced leaving the operating team in 2026. Felix Wong is the later CTO. The company announced a $2 million pre-seed in January 2024, a $9 million seed in May 2024 and a $33 million Series A in August 2025, representing $44 million across those individually disclosed rounds. Its neuroscience connection concerns founder training and AI research, not an approved medical or brain-interface product.
Founded 2023
Team
 Andrew AhnCo-Founder and Chief Science Officer |
Felix WongChief Technology Officer |
 Guangyu Robert YangCo-Founder and CEO |
Manuel E. Cortés RadaResearch team member (title undisclosed) |
 Nico ChristieCo-Founder (former operating team) |
Peter Y. WangFounding Scientist |
 Shuying LuoCo-Founder; founding CTO |