Gibran, a newly launched AI research startup, has secured $2.6 million in seed funding from Together Fund to develop a new generation of adaptive, scale-free AI systems inspired by principles from evolutionary biology and nature.
The funding marks Together Fund’s latest bet on foundational AI innovation. Led by Freshworks’ Girish Mathrubootham and Eka Software’s Manav Garg, the fund called Gibran’s approach—combining large language models with self-organizing, biologically grounded architectures—“one of the most original ideas” it has come across in the field.
Founded by Govind Balakrishnan, Srikant Chakravarti, Suzanne Sadedin, and Edgar Duéñez-Guzmán, Gibran is looking to reimagine how machines collaborate with humans in complex, creative domains like drug discovery, education, and theoretical science.
“Our central thesis is that AI should not replace humans, but rather evolve with them,” said Balakrishnan. “That means building systems that learn not just from data, but from people—continuously and contextually.”
The founding team brings together diverse expertise: Balakrishnan and Chakravarti previously co-founded Curio, an AI-powered audio news platform that ran for eight years, while Sadedin, an evolutionary biologist, and Duéñez-Guzmán, a generative systems researcher, contribute deep scientific and computational experience.
Gibran’s focus is on developing AI agents capable of operating in data-scarce environments—where traditional pre-trained models fall short. These “scale-free” models aim to grow and evolve over time through ongoing interaction with users and changing environments.
According to Together Fund, Gibran’s research will explore foundational AI architectures where autonomy, ethical alignment, and continuous learning are embedded into the system design. Such systems, they believe, could redefine how humans and machines partner—serving as co-pilots in scientific discovery, creative expression, and personalized education.
“This is not just about productivity. It’s about human flourishing,” said Manav Garg, adding that Gibran’s AI agents could eventually act as lifelong learning companions, adapting to individual styles, needs, and aspirations.
The startup plans to use the funds to grow its research team, build its platform, and begin deploying early applications in scientific domains. Initial R&D outputs are expected by December 2025.
