Autoscience Secures $14 Million Seed Funding to Revolutionize AI Research
Autoscience has announced the completion of a $14 million seed funding round, led by General Catalyst, to advance its development of an AI-powered virtual laboratory. This innovative platform aims to automate the research and development of machine learning models, addressing the increasing bottleneck in human-led experimentation. Alongside General Catalyst, notable investors such as Toyota Ventures, Perplexity Fund, MaC Ventures, and S32 participated in the funding round.
The virtual laboratory employs autonomous AI scientists and engineers to generate, test, and deploy new algorithms, effectively reducing the time required for machine learning research from years to just months. As more than 2,000 machine learning papers are published weekly, the challenge for many research teams is not a lack of data or computational resources, but the human capacity to evaluate and implement these rapid advancements. Autoscience aims to alleviate this burden by utilizing two core AI systems: automated scientists that ideate and test algorithmic hypotheses and automated engineers that optimize and deploy the validated innovations.
Autoscience’s initial deployments focus on high-stakes financial applications, manufacturing, and fraud detection, allowing companies to benefit from the capabilities of a fully-staffed research division without the associated headcount. The technology has already gained recognition in the field; the company’s autonomous lab produced the first AI-generated peer-reviewed scientific research paper, presented at the ICLR 2025 workshop. Additionally, it secured a Silver Medal in a 2025 Kaggle competition, marking the first time a fully autonomous system placed among 3,300 competing teams.
Eliot Cowan, CEO of Autoscience, stated, “We’ve reached a point where human intuition is no longer enough to navigate the complexity of algorithmic discovery. We’ve built a research organization where the researchers are AI systems. We aim to compress a decade of machine learning research into months, unlocking new AI capabilities for scientists and forming a competitive edge for our customers.”
This latest funding will be instrumental in scaling Autoscience’s services to a select group of Fortune 500 companies and large private enterprises that are training specialized models in high-stakes environments. The managed service deploys hundreds of automated AI Research Scientists that continuously generate and deliver improved machine learning models. This simultaneous operation allows companies to discover, test, and utilize superior models efficiently.
Yuri Sagalov, Managing Director at General Catalyst, remarked, “We believe Autoscience is tackling an increasingly important challenge in machine learning: the pace and scalability of experimentation. As research output continues to grow, teams are looking for ways to more efficiently test, validate, and translate new ideas into production systems. We’re excited about their progress in advancing autonomous R&D to scale that workflow.”
Founded in San Mateo, California, Autoscience is committed to automating the role of AI researchers and engineers through its applied research lab. By merging academic rigor with AI speed, the company seeks to help organizations create and implement proprietary machine learning breakthroughs. The funding will also support an expansion of Autoscience’s engineering team as they accelerate AI research, further establishing autonomous AI research as a new standard in model development.
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