AI startup Literal Labs has raised £4.6 million in Pre-Seed funding.
Literal Labs is pioneering logic-based AI models that are orders of magnitude faster, more energy efficient, and more explainable than today’s neural networks.
Its approach is inspired by the work of Mikhail Tsetlin; a mathematician and contemporary of John Macarthy, who pioneered neural networks.
Like neural networks, the Tsetlin machine can perform complex machine learning training. However, unlike neural networks, it is based on propositional logic, which makes it more efficient in terms of computation and energy usage, whilst speeding up inferencing.
Recent MLPerf Anomaly detection benchmarking shows Literal Labs can achieve 54x faster inferencing than “classic techniques” for machine learning applications, with 52x less energy consumption than equivalent neural networks. It also achieved 250x faster performance than XGBoost for machine learning applications.
Literal Labs was spun out of Newcastle University by Dr Alex Yakovlev and Dr Rishad Shafik, along with company builder Cambridge Future Tech. Noel Hurley was later appointed CEO of Literal Labs in 2023, after having spent more than 20 years at Arm, where he led its product marketing as well as its CPU division, which accounted for over 70 per cent of revenue, totalling approximately $1 billion.
Noel Hurley, CEO of Literal Labs, said:
“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.”
Northern Gritstone and Mercuri co-led the round, with participation from Sure Valley Ventures, Cambridge Future Tech SPV, and several angel investors.
Duncan Johnson, CEO of Northern Gritstone, said:
“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.”
Esha Vatsa, Partner at Mercuri said:
“We are excited to back Literal Labs as it redefines AI with a radically efficient alternative to existing neural networks. The team, combining deep research expertise and proven industry leadership, is uniquely positioned to commercialise this innovation.”
The fresh injection of funding will be used to grow its engineering team further and bring its first commercial product to market later in 2025 for customers with EdgeAI who need to:
- Replace GPU-heavy algorithms that are too large, expensive, or energy-intensive,
- Operate in strict social or regulatory markets, in which explainability of AI is essential,
- Have more efficient AI models for battery-based products.
Lead image: Literal Labs. Photo: uncredited.
Would you like to write the first comment?
Login to post comments