Where is Cortical Labs headquartered?

Cortical Labs is headquartered in Melbourne, Australia. The company has a team of 11-50 people.

What does Cortical Labs do?

Cortical Labs operates in the AI Infrastructure sector. Australian biotechnology company developing biological computing systems by integrating lab-grown human neurons with silicon hardware World's first commercially available code-deployable biological computer (CL1) that uses living human neurons grown on silicon chips to process information with dramatically lower energy consumption than traditional AI hardware

When was Cortical Labs founded?

Cortical Labs was founded in 2019. It is based in Melbourne, Australia.

Who is the CEO of Cortical Labs?

Hon Weng Chong is the CEO of Cortical Labs. The company was founded in 2019.

Where is Cortical Labs located?

Cortical Labs is headquartered in Melbourne, Australia.

What funding stage is Cortical Labs at?

Cortical Labs is currently at the Growth Stage stage.

How many employees does Cortical Labs have?

Cortical Labs has approximately 11-50 employees.

Cortical Labs

Category: AI Infrastructure

Australian biotechnology company developing biological computing systems by integrating lab-grown human neurons with silicon hardware Cortical Labs was founded in 2019. The company is led by Hon Weng Chong. Based in Melbourne, Australia. Team size: 11-50. Total funding raised: $11.6M. Latest round: Series B. Key investors include Horizons Ventures; Blackbird Ventures; In-Q-Tel; LifeX Ventures; Radar Ventures; January Capital; Gobi Partners (via Gobi Dana Impak Ventures); 3C AGI Partners; Tom Oxley (Synchron founder).

Founded: 2019
Headquarters: Melbourne, Australia
Team size: 11-50
Total funding: $11.6M

Value proposition

World's first commercially available code-deployable biological computer (CL1) that uses living human neurons grown on silicon chips to process information with dramatically lower energy consumption than traditional AI hardware

Products and solutions

CL1 (biological computer, ~$35K/unit); Cortical Cloud (Wetware-as-a-Service platform with Python SDK); DishBrain (research platform); biOS (Biological Intelligence Operating System)

Unique value

Only company with a commercially deployable biological computer using real human neurons on silicon chips — enabling ultra-low-energy computing, animal-testing-free drug discovery, and a fundamentally new compute paradigm (Synthetic Biological Intelligence)

Target customer

Academic research institutions, pharmaceutical companies for drug discovery, neuroscience researchers, biomedical labs, and AI/ML researchers

Industries served

Drug discovery & disease modelling; Neuroscience research; Central nervous system drug development; Robotics & adaptive AI; Biomedical research

Technology advantage

Proprietary biOS (Biological Intelligence Operating System) for closed-loop neuron-silicon interaction; high-density multielectrode arrays (22,000 electrodes); human iPSC-derived neuron cultures; life-support system sustaining neurons up to 6 months; 850-1000W power consumption vs. traditional AI hardware; demonstrated sample efficiency surpassing deep RL in constrained learning scenarios

How they differentiate

First and only company with a commercially available, code-deployable biological computer (CL1) — competitors like FinalSpark offer research platforms but not commercial-grade deployable systems. Cortical Labs also offers Cortical Cloud (Wetware-as-a-Service) for remote access without specialized lab infrastructure, and has demonstrated real-world applications (Pong, Doom) with published peer-reviewed research in Neuron.

Main competitors

FinalSpark (Switzerland, Neuroplatform biocomputing); Organoid Intelligence research groups (Johns Hopkins, academic); INBRAIN Neuroelectronics (Spain, graphene-based neural interfaces)

Key partnerships

Monash University (early research); DayOne (Singapore biological data center partnership); National University of Singapore / Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine; VERSES AI (beta partnership integrating Friston's free energy principle); bit.bio (Cambridge biotech); Organoid Intelligence alliance led by Johns Hopkins University; Blackbird Ventures (investor/partner)

Notable customers

Monash University; National University of Singapore / Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine; Various academic and commercial research institutions (specific names not publicly disclosed)

Major milestones

2019: Company founded; 2021: First demonstration of neurons playing Pong; 2022: Peer-reviewed publication in Neuron (DishBrain); 2023: $10M Series A led by Horizons Ventures; 2025: CL1 commercial biological computer launched at Mobile World Congress Barcelona; 2025: Demonstrated DOOM running on CL1; 2026: Cortical Cloud (WaaS) launched; 2026: Series B funding; 2026: Partnership with DayOne for Singapore biological data center; 2026: Featured on Bloomberg

Growth metrics

CL1 launched March 2025 at ~$35K/unit; Cortical Cloud (WaaS) launched 2026; First biological data center prototype in Melbourne; Expanding to Singapore with DayOne partnership

Market positioning

Pioneer and early leader in the emerging organoid intelligence / synthetic biological intelligence market; positioned as an alternative compute substrate for AI that addresses the energy crisis of traditional GPU-based AI infrastructure

Geographic focus

Global, with strong presence in Australia (Melbourne HQ), expanding to Singapore (biological data center with DayOne), and partnerships in Europe (UK/Cambridge) and US (Johns Hopkins)

Patents and IP

Holds patents related to synthetic biological intelligence and organoid intelligence systems (as noted in PMC publications); proprietary biOS platform

About Hon Weng Chong

Co-founder & CEO of Cortical Labs; Previously co-founded CliniCloud (medical device startup backed by Tencent and Ping An Ventures); Medical Doctor and Software Engineer; Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Official website: https://corticallabs.com