Cortex AI
Data & simulation
YC-backed supplier of egocentric workplace video and robot trajectories, annotated for embodied-AI world models.
Cortex AI collects and sells real-world training data for embodied AI. It runs an operator network of real workplaces — warehouses, kitchens and light manufacturing — where workers wear egocentric capture rigs, and pairs that footage with hand and body pose, depth and subtask annotations so it is directly usable by robotics world models. A second product collects robot trajectories inside customers' own facilities for fine-tuning on top of foundation models, and a third supplies human-in-the-loop rollouts and evaluations that capture recovery data from failure cases. Customers are frontier robot-foundation labs. The company is in Y Combinator's F25 batch and is based in San Francisco.
Research mapping
Physical AI / AI Factory & Cloud Training Infrastructure (L1) / Data & simulation
Evidence boundary
Original analysis and independent corroboration remain under development. Commercial scale and durable technical advantage remain under review.
What makes it defensible
An operator network spanning real workplaces — the collection logistics and annotation pipeline, not the models — is what makes diverse egocentric manipulation data repeatable.
Position in the stack: Data layer: it sits between workplaces that have real tasks and labs that need training distribution, and owns the collection network both sides depend on.
Who buys it
Unknown
Founding team
Lucas Ngoo — Founder & CEO — Previously co-founder and CTO of Carousell, the Southeast Asian marketplace valued at over $1B.
SourceFinancing detail
- Last round
- Seed
Investors: Y Combinator, 500 Global
Mapped funds and investors
Direct relationships supported by published evidence.
Reported holdings as-of
No sourced relationships mapped yet.
Disclosed investment history
No sourced relationships mapped yet.
Showing up to four relationships in each group. ETF weights describe the fund’s portfolio, not ownership of this company. Private investment history does not establish current ownership.