Lab to Company · LAB TO COMPANY 002 · An investor's studio incubates
Radical AI: two investors walk out of AlleyCorp to found a company, with a Berkeley professor
The question · When an investment firm turns its own investors into founders, who supplies the research, the lab and the money?
At a glance · AlleyCorp's "largest check ever", amount undisclosed; a $55M seed led by RTX Ventures; mentions of Ceder or Berkeley's autonomous lab on Radical's own pages: none.
One of the Lab to Company series. Each piece reads the public record through five roles: who supplies the research (the results, methods or team it came from), who holds the IP (patents, licences, what a parent kept), who gives the lab and equipment, who puts in the first money and on what terms, and who joins the company. It records only what the public record states and says who said each thing; a missing step is marked not yet public, and a company's own figure is written as the company's.
Radical AI is a New York materials company that develops alloys and electronic materials with AI and an automated lab. Two founders, Joseph Krause and Jorge Colindres, were on AlleyCorp's investment team; the third co-founder and chief science officer, Gerbrand Ceder, is a materials scientist at Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley who led the autonomous lab A-Lab.[1][2][5] AlleyCorp, Kevin Ryan's investment and incubation firm, says its investors look for incubation ideas while reviewing deals and "occasionally" one leaves to run one full time, often as CEO; it calls Radical "one of the most ambitious incubations in AlleyCorp's history".[1]
Who supplies the research · Two strands. On the science, AlleyCorp says Ceder brings 30-plus years of materials lab experience, led the Materials Genome effort under the Obama administration and, "most importantly, has already built a fully autonomous lab": Berkeley's A-Lab.[2][5] Ceder has since published under a Radical AI affiliation (TorchSim, 2025, and others).[6] Yet Radical's own site and announcements never name Ceder, Berkeley Lab or the A-Lab, and the A-Lab does inorganic powder synthesis while Radical's published campaigns are alloys.[5][4] On the founding, Krause did materials research at Rice and the Army Research Laboratory, and says the idea came while he and Colindres were reviewing AI pitches at AlleyCorp.[10][14]
Who holds the IP · Not yet public. No licence from Berkeley Lab or the University of California to Radical turned up, and no patent in Radical AI's name was found (the patent search hit a bot block, which was not worked around). On a podcast a founder said compositions can be patented but the real IP is "the trade secret on how do you make it at scale"; they do not plan to license materials, but to sell them.[7] What is open is tools such as TorchSim and the MATRIX dataset.[6]
Who gives the lab and equipment · The company builds its own, with state help. Its first lab was in Manhattan (430 East 29th Street, per a paper's address).[6] In January 2026 New York State announced that Radical will refit Building 20 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard as its headquarters and lab: a $4M project, up to $2M in performance-based Excelsior tax credits, 115 jobs promised, about 34 staff at the time.[8] Size and opening date are not public; no source says AlleyCorp or Berkeley supplied space or equipment.
Who puts in the first money, and on what terms · AlleyCorp. By April 2024 it was calling Radical "our largest check ever", and in July "our largest pre-seed check ever"; amount, valuation and stake are not public, and AlleyCorp's usual cheque is $1-5M.[1][2][15] The seed closed in July 2025 at $55M; the company's post names no investors, and AlleyCorp says RTX Ventures led, with NVentures (NVIDIA), noa, Infinite Capital, Eni and AlleyCorp.[4][3] Non-dilutive money: an Air Force AFWERX contract of about $1.2M, and the state tax credits above.[12][8]
Who joins the company · Two of AlleyCorp's own investors, plus Ceder.[2] Krause began by emailing New York investors cold, interned at AlleyCorp for six months and worked there about two and a half years, meeting his co-founders.[10] AlleyCorp said in July 2024 that five other PhDs had joined; the state counted about 34 staff in January 2026.[2][8] No board, advisers or senior executives are named.
What each side put in
- AlleyCorp put in two of its staff and its largest early cheque, and got a company it calls an incubation; its portfolio page now tags Radical "Investment", not "Incubation", without saying why.[1][2][9]
- The Berkeley side put in Ceder himself: chief science officer at Radical while still running his Berkeley group, with no licence or equity arrangement on the record.[5][6]
- New York State put in tax credits, in return for a promise of 115 jobs.[8]
Not yet public · The pre-seed's amount, date, terms and AlleyCorp's stake; the seed valuation; any Berkeley Lab or UC licence or stake; patents; Ceder's time commitment; the Navy Yard lab's size and opening date; board and advisers; customers.
Decision point · The next decision belongs to the next round's investors: R&D World mentions "a reported $60 million Series A" without saying who reported it, and neither the company nor an investor has announced one.[11] By the founders' account the company will sell materials rather than license them, so the next thing to look for is a first named order for a material.[7]
The chain's timeline
- About 2021–2024Krause and Colindres on AlleyCorp's investment team[2][10]
- Spring 2024AlleyCorp incubates Radical, "our largest check ever"; Ceder co-founder and chief science officer[1]
- 2024-07AlleyCorp introduces Radical publicly; five PhDs have joined[2]
- 2025-07$55M seed led by RTX Ventures[4][3]
- 2025-08TorchSim paper; Air Force AFWERX contract[6][12]
- 2026-01New York State announces the Brooklyn Navy Yard lab[8]
- NextThe next round; a first named order for a material. Awaiting public data.
- LaterThe Brooklyn lab's target of about 100 experiments a day, as stated in the state's release.[8]
Sources
- AlleyCorp newsletter, 2024-04-10. alleycorp.substack.com ↗ (read in full)
- AlleyCorp newsletter, Kevin Ryan, "Introducing Radical AI", 2024-07-10. alleycorp.substack.com ↗ (read in full)
- AlleyCorp newsletter, 2025-10-22. alleycorp.substack.com ↗ (the Radical passages read)
- Radical AI, seed announcement, 2025-07-18. radical-ai.com ↗ (read in full)
- Ceder group, autonomous experimentation research page. ceder.berkeley.edu ↗ (read in full)
- TorchSim, arXiv 2508.06628, 2025-08-06. arxiv.org ↗ (title page and affiliations read)
- The Cognitive Revolution podcast transcript, about 2025-08. cognitiverevolution.ai ↗ (searched by keyword; the machine transcript's speaker labels are unreliable)
- New York Governor's office release, 2026-01-27. governor.ny.gov ↗ (read in full through a reprint)
- AlleyCorp portfolio page. alleycorp.com ↗ (read)
- Burkland podcast write-up, 2025. burklandassociates.com ↗ (read in full)
- R&D World, 2026-01-30. rdworldonline.com ↗ (read in full)
- Radical AI, Air Force contract announcement, 2025-08-25. radical-ai.com ↗ (read in full)
- AlleyCorp newsletter, 2025-01-14 (just under $100M deployed in 2024; Radical "one of the biggest bets we've made in AI"). alleycorp.substack.com ↗ (the Radical passages read)
- Upstarts Media, 2026-07-10. upstartsmedia.com ↗ (article read in full)
- AlleyCorp, focus-areas page. alleycorp.com ↗ (read)