Airtree has invested $5 million in Adelaide AI startup Metacognition, just a month after it raised $10m in a pre-Seed round.
The AI robotics startup was founded earlier year by professors Anton van den Hengel and Stephen Gould, alongside Dr Paul Dalby.
The additional funds, extending the pre-seed to $15m, comes as VC’s cofounder, Craig Blair, warned that Australia risks losing the economic benefits of AI if it simply hosts technology developed overseas.
“If all we do is keep the lights on for models trained elsewhere, the value walks out the door with the tenants,” he said.
“We don’t need to win everything, but we do need to be in the game, which means backing the people building the missing pieces. Anton and Steve are leading one of the world’s best research teams, tackling some of the hardest unsolved problems in AI right here in Adelaide.”
Airtree also pointed to modelling from the Australian Academy of Technological Science and Engineering, which suggests targeted public co-investment in AI enablers could help mobilise between $27 billion and $49bn in new private capital.
Metacognition is building software to make AI agents and robots reliable enough to carry out tasks with real consequences, including an operating system called Zeos, navigation models, and reasoning and memory tools.
Its aim is to let machines remember instructions, respond safely to emergencies and improve over days and weeks. The company initially targeted industrial systems, building simulations where operators could manage an open-cut mine or electricity grid using verbal instructions.
The new investment coincides with the release of NavGPT-3, developed with collaborators, which Metacognition says sets a world benchmark for robots navigating by following verbal directions.
Van den Hengel said today’s AI remains largely confined to tasks where people can check its work.
“If agents and robots are to be our trusted co-workers, they need to be able to have the flexibility to talk in natural language and carry out tasks without surprising us,” he said.
