Ndea：肖莱和克努普押注程序合成能构建AGI，以4300万美元进入YC W26

做的是什么生意

An AI research and science lab (YC W26) aiming to 'develop and operationalize' AGI by fusing deep learning with program synthesis, then turning the resulting AI into a factory for rapid scientific invention and commercialization.

启动资金：$43M raised before entering YC W26 (largest pre-YC raise in the batch, per Unicorn Screener); no round-by-round breakdown disclosed

起因

François Chollet, creator of Keras, announced in November 2024 he was leaving Google after nearly a decade; on 2025-01-15 he and Mike Knoop, Zapier co-founder and head of AI, publicly launched Ndea as an AI research and science lab focused on developing and operationalizing AGI, with Knoop stepping back from day-to-day Zapier while staying on its board.

经过

Ndea's thesis: current deep learning is constrained by its inability to efficiently learn and adapt, so the lab bets on deep-learning-guided program synthesis — deep learning guides search over discrete programs, needing only a few examples to generalize. Chollet called the chance of a breakthrough 'small but real.' By 2026 the lab had joined YC's W26 batch with a $43M pre-YC raise — the largest in the batch — and was hiring remote research positions.

结果

In progress: as of YC W26 Demo Day (2026-03-24) Ndea is still in the research phase — no product or benchmark results disclosed — building what it calls the world's most talent-dense program synthesis team.

可借鉴之处

研究押注依靠信誉和可证伪论点来扩大规模：肖莱和克努普在发布任何产品之前，以明确的问题和方法——引导式程序合成——募集了4300万美元。