Logic-Based AI Algorithm Startup Literal Labs Raises Euro 4.6 Million Funding.

Led By Noel Hurley(CEO), Leon Fedden(CTO), Professor Alex Yakovlev(Co-Founder), & Professor Rishad Shafik(Co-Founder), AI Startup Literal Labs has raised Euro 4.6 Million Pre-Seed funding led by Northern Gritstone & co-led by Mercuri with participation from Sure Valley Ventures, Cambridge Future Tech SPV, and several angel investors.

Literal Labs is developing logic-based AI models that are significantly faster, more energy-efficient, and more explainable than neural networks—drawing inspiration from mathematician Mikhail Tsetlin, a pioneer in early AI.

Like neural networks, the Tsetlin machine supports complex machine learning tasks—but its foundation in propositional logic makes it far more efficient, enabling faster and more energy-saving inferencing. In recent MLPerf Anomaly Detection benchmarks, Literal Labs delivered 54x faster inferencing and 52x lower energy use compared to neural networks and outperformed XGBoost by 250x.

Spun out of Newcastle University by logic-based AI experts Dr. Alex Yakovlev and Dr. Rishad Shafik with Cambridge Future Tech, Literal Labs appointed former Arm executive Noel Hurley as CEO in 2023. In 2024, the company doubled its team and named ex-AstraZeneca AI lead Leon Fedden as CTO. With fresh funding, Literal Labs will expand its engineering team and launch its first commercial product in 2025—targeting EdgeAI customers seeking efficient, explainable alternatives to GPU-heavy models, especially for regulated markets and battery-powered devices.