NeoCognition raises $40M to build self-learning AI agents

NeoCognition, an AI research lab and startup, has emerged from stealth with $40 million in seed funding. The early-stage investment round was co-led by venture capital firms Cambium Capital and Walden Catalyst Ventures. The funding round also included participation from private equity firm Vista Equity Partners, alongside angel investors Lip-Bu Tan, the Intel CEO, and Ion Stoica, a Databricks co-founder. The startup was founded by Yu Su, an Ohio State professor who spun out his work into a startup last year with the goal of solving the reliability issues plaguing current AI agents.

According to Su, current AI agents—which are software programs designed to perform tasks autonomously—are generalists and are unreliable. “Today’s agents are generalists. Every time you ask them to do a task, you take a leap of faith,” Su said. He noted that current agents successfully complete tasks as intended only about 50% of the time. Because current agents remain unreliable, Su explained that they are not ready to be trusted as independent workers in enterprise environments.

To address these reliability issues, NeoCognition is building agent systems capable of self-learning, which is the AI capability to improve performance without explicit reprogramming. The startup is developing systems that learn autonomously to build a model of any given “micro world,” which refers to a specific domain or environment for AI specialization. This approach mirrors the human ability to specialize in new environments. “For humans, our continued learning process is essentially the process of building a world model for any profession, any environment. We believe for agents to become experts, they need to learn autonomously to build a model of any given micro world,” Su said.

NeoCognition, which currently has about 15 employees, intends to sell its agent systems primarily to enterprises. The startup plans to leverage its network of investors, such as private equity firm Vista Equity Partners, to reach companies looking to modernize with artificial intelligence. Su noted that Vista Equity Partners can provide the startup with direct access to a portfolio of companies looking to modernize their products with AI.

Why it matters

NeoCognition is attempting to solve the reliability and consistency issues of current AI agents by developing systems that can self-learn and specialize in specific domains, similar to human learning.