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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is backing Alfred, a startup building software to help engineers at robotics and automotive companies reduce research and development timelines, according to Business Insider.
Hydrazine Capital, Altman's venture firm, is the vehicle through which he made the investment, according to Business Insider. Additional backers include Khosla Ventures, SV Angel, and Chapter One, among others; co-founder Ankit Ukil told Business Insider that the round is targeting a $40 million valuation.
Alfred was founded roughly nine months ago and is based in Hawthorne, California. The founding team pairs Ankit Ukil, who comes from a design role at Tesla $TSLA -4.57%, with Dömötör Gulyas, who previously worked as an engineer at Meta $META -5.07% Reality Labs. Other team members have backgrounds at Tesla, Ford $F -4.64%, and Honda $HMC -2.78%, according to Business Insider.
The startup's flagship platform is still under development. By automating routine engineering tasks, the platform is designed to free up time for higher-value work — Ukil cited the kinds of features that have become standard in newer Chinese EVs as the sort of innovation engineers could pursue instead, he told Business Insider. Ukil said talks are already underway with a number of potential customers across the automotive, defense, and robotics sectors, though he declined to name them.
