Fundamental Research Labs nabs $30M+ to build AI agents across verticals

Fundamental Research Labs, an applied AI research company formerly known as Altera, has raised $33 million in a Series A funding round led by Prosus, with participation from Stripe co-founder Patrick Collison. The company operates with a unique structure, maintaining multiple teams focused on diverse AI applications across different verticals, including gaming, prosumer apps, core research, and platform development. Founded by Dr. Robert Yang, a former MIT faculty member, the startup aims to be a “historical” company by eschewing typical startup norms and is already generating revenue by charging users for its AI agents after a seven-day trial. Among its products, Fundamental Research Labs offers a general-purpose consumer assistant and a spreadsheet-based AI agent called Shortcut, which has demonstrated impressive performance by outperforming first-year analysts from McKinsey and Goldman Sachs in head-to-head evaluations. The company has raised over $40 million to date and is focused on productivity applications as a primary value driver, with long-term ambitions to develop