Seldon Labs

Seldon Labs PBC is a San Francisco-based public benefit corporation that functions as the first startup accelerator specifically focused on AGI security technologies. Co-founded in early 2025 by Esben Kran and Finn Metz, the organization operates as both a research lab and a startup accelerator, combining research publication with venture investment in early-stage AI security companies. Esben Kran previously co-founded Apart Research, an AI safety research organization that produced over 25 publications at major machine learning conferences including NeurIPS, ICLR, and ICML. Finn Metz brings experience from private equity and venture capital, having supported funding rounds totaling over $20 million and raised seven figures specifically for AI security research. Together they co-founded the AI Safety Founders community before launching Seldon Lab. The organization's advisors include Nick Fitz of Juniper Ventures and Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup and founder of the Long-Term Stock Exchange. Seldon's pilot batch (Batch 1, Summer 2025) brought together four startups: Andon Labs, Lucid Computing, Workshop Labs, and DeepResponse. The pilot achieved significant early traction, with batch companies collectively raising over $10 million in funding, selling security solutions to both xAI and Anthropic, and patenting new inventions for verifiable compute. Companies were featured in TIME magazine three times. Batch 2 launched in January 2026 as a three-month in-person program running through April 2026, with six startups currently in residence. The accelerator invests up to $500,000 per startup using YC SAFE agreements, with funding routed through Manifund. The program provides office space, weekly founder events, direct customer introductions, and access to a technical and investor network. Focus areas include formal verification, compute controls, interpretability, civilian infrastructure protection, supply chain oversight, AI insurance, hardware-level governance, and chip security. Seldon Labs has received non-dilutive funding from the Survival and Flourishing Fund, including $53,000 through the 2025 S-Process and a $20,000 Speculation Grant. It has also received investment from Macroscopic Ventures, a Swiss nonprofit focused on long-term flourishing, along with in-kind contributions and investments from other private investors.