Fundamental Research Labs —Building digital humans.

We've been tracking Fundamental Research Labs since their rebrand from Altera, and honestly, they're one of the most intriguing AI companies we've come across lately. Their mission to build "digital humans" sounds like sci-fi, but what caught our attention is how they're actually shipping real products while pursuing this moonshot goal.

Two Products, One Vision

What's clever about Fundamental Research Labs is their dual approach. They're not just burning through $40M in funding on research papers. Instead, they've launched two very different products that serve as testing grounds for their broader AI agent vision.

Shortcut, their AI-powered Excel agent, is already being used by thousands of paying customers at top finance companies. We tested it ourselves, and it genuinely feels like having a junior analyst who never gets tired of building financial models. The fact that it preserves macros and keyboard shortcuts shows they understand how finance professionals actually work.

Then there's Fairies, their general-purpose AI assistant. It's more experimental but serves as their playground for testing multi-agent systems and social intelligence features.

The Research Pedigree That Actually Matters

Here's what impressed us most: when other companies were hitting 4% on the SWE-bench coding benchmark, Fundamental Research Labs was achieving 13%. That's not just incremental improvement—that's a fundamental difference in approach.

The founding team brings serious credentials too. Dr. Robert Yang (MIT faculty) and Nico Christie have this unusual combination of academic rigor and practical business sense. They've managed to attract funding from Prosus Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz, plus backing from Stripe's CEO Patrick Collison.

Why We're Optimistic

Most AI companies either chase the latest trend or get lost in theoretical research. Fundamental Research Labs feels different because they're building a revenue-generating business while pursuing genuinely ambitious research goals.

Their SOC 2 Type I certification for Shortcut shows they're serious about enterprise adoption. The fact that they're already profitable on at least one product line gives them breathing room to pursue their longer-term vision without constantly scrambling for the next funding round.

We're particularly excited to see how their "digital humans" concept evolves. If they can crack the code on truly collaborative AI agents, they won't just have built a successful company—they'll have changed how we work with AI entirely.