Cambridge tech startup backed by ‘Godfather of AI’ raises £24m

Geoffrey Hinton, known as the ‘Godfather of AI’ due to his pioneering research on machine learning, will serve as a board adviser to CuspAI.

A Cambridge based artificial intelligence (AI) startup developing next-gen materials for sustainability and clean energy has secured $30m (£24m) in seed funding.

CuspAI’s funding round was led by UK venture capital firm Hoxton Ventures, along with participation from Basis Set Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners, both California-based.

The startup’s platform, which uses generative AI and deep learning, operates like a search engine, allowing users to request materials with specific properties. CuspAI says it will accelerate the discovery of new materials that have “precise” functions.

For example, it says its technology will be particularly promising for reducing emissions via carbon capture and storage, an industry projected to be worth $4 trillion (£3.2 trillion) by 2050 according to gas company Exxonmobil.

Geoffrey Hinton, known as the ‘Godfather of AI’ due to his pioneering research on machine learning, will serve as a board adviser to CuspAI. He said: “Humanity will face many challenges in the coming decade. Some will be caused by AI while others can be solved by AI.

“I’ve been very impressed by CuspAI and its mission to accelerate the design process of new materials using AI to curb one of humanity’s most urgent challenges – climate change,” added Hinton, who quit his role at Google last year over concerns that AI will be used to create false images and text.

CuspAI was founded by AI pioneer Professor Max Welling, a former scientist at Microsoft Research and Qualcomm, and deep-tech expert Dr Chad Edwards, who has previously worked for Google.

Edwards, who is also chief executive of CuspAI, said: “The AI revolution is itself creating new challenges, including rapidly increasing energy consumption and carbon emissions from data centres. Our technology can help mitigate this impact by designing materials that efficiently capture carbon dioxide.”

The company has also partnered with Facebook and Instagram owner Meta to advance its open science contributions, meaning research is not gate-kept by companies.

Meta’s chief AI scientist, Yann Le Cun, said: “The world needs fast progress on affordable carbon capture, and we believe that CuspAI’s team is in an excellent position to apply AI-based materials discovery to this pressing problem.”