Literal Labs secures £4.6m in pre-seed funding led by Northern Gritstone and Mercuri to scale engineering and launch its first product.
Northern Gritstone and Mercuri co-led the pre-seed round to help the Newcastle-based artificial intelligence firm commercialise its technology.
Literal Labs develops logic-based artificial intelligence models designed to offer greater energy efficiency and speed than conventional neural networks. Headquartered in Newcastle, the firm focuses on delivering scalable machine learning solutions for various commercial applications.
Literal Labs has secured £4.6m in a pre-seed funding round co-led by Northern Gritstone and Mercuri, with additional backing from Sure Valley Ventures, Cambridge Future Tech SPV, and angel investors. The capital will be directed towards expanding the engineering team and preparing the company's inaugural commercial product for launch.
Spun out of Newcastle University, the firm builds logic-based AI algorithms capable of outperforming traditional neural networks in speed and energy efficiency. Led by former Arm executive Noel Hurley, the business plans to use the fresh injection of funds to scale operations and meet growing commercial demand for explainable artificial intelligence.
From the founder
"We’re at a pivotal moment for AI with adoption continuing to accelerate alongside sustainability and cost concerns. Our logic-based AI offers a new solution for those that want and need high-performing AI that is faster, more energy efficient and more explainable than what’s currently available via neural networks. This funding comes at a time when we’re ready to significantly speed up our product development and will enable us to bring our first product to market later this year."
Noel Hurley
CEO at Literal Labs
Investor perspective
"Literal Labs is Northern Gritstone’s first investment linked to Newcastle University, renowned for its technology-related research. We are delighted to support Noel Hurley and the Literal Labs team at a time when innovation can truly benefit from greater efficiency in AI."
Duncan Johnson
CEO, Northern Gritstone
Use of funds
- 01Grow the team
- 02Continue product development
Investors
Categories
About the company
Literal Labs
Literal Labs builds high-performance logic-based artificial intelligence models that are faster and more energy efficient than neural networks.