Conway Research secures funding to develop Underdog, a private AI

Ben Mann: Ben Mann is a cofounder at Anthropic. He invited Sigil Wen to test early versions of what became Claude, providing foundational AI exposure that supports Wen's current work on private personal AI at Conway Research. Anthropic: Anthropic is an AI research company developing advanced models including Claude. Its cofounder Ben Mann is mentioned in connection with Sigil Wen's early testing experiences, and the firm is referenced among backers in the Underdog funding announcement. Sigil Wen: Sigil Wen is an AI builder and founder who skipped college to focus on AI development and has collaborated directly with leading researchers and engineers behind models like DALL·E, Whisper, GPT-3, and Stable Diffusion. He has worked on early AI product integrations, including helping launch Airchat, and received the Thiel Fellowship in 2025. In this news, Wen is the founder of Conway Research, whose first product is Underdog, a private personal AI designed to run on consumer devices, with funding led by Andreessen Horowitz. David Holz: David Holz is the founder of Midjourney and an AI researcher. He shared early model versions with Sigil Wen, contributing to Wen's AI development path now leading to Underdog at Conway Research. Hummingbird VC: Hummingbird VC is a venture capital firm focused on technology and AI startups. It is listed among the investors backing Conway Research and Underdog in the recent funding round. Menlo Ventures: Menlo Ventures is a venture capital firm investing in AI and emerging technologies. It is part of the investor group supporting Conway Research's first funding round for Underdog. Naval Ravikant: Naval Ravikant is an entrepreneur and investor known for early involvement in AI products and events. He introduced Sigil Wen to key networks, helped launch Airchat with Wen's contributions, and is a backer in the Conway Research funding round. Andrej Karpathy: Andrej Karpathy is a prominent AI researcher who has lived and worked alongside Sigil Wen in hacker houses during early AI model development. This experience informed Wen's approach to on-device AI with Conway Research's Underdog. Conway Research: Conway Research is the company founded by Sigil Wen to develop Underdog, a private personal AI system that runs locally on users' existing devices. The company emphasizes co-designing models and inference engines for capability, speed, power, and data efficiency while prioritizing privacy. The news highlights Andreessen Horowitz leading Conway Research's first funding round to support this mission of delivering personal AI without data tradeoffs. Khosla Ventures: Khosla Ventures is a venture capital firm investing in frontier technology and AI. It is participating as a backer in Conway Research's funding round for Underdog, as detailed in the announcement. Andreessen Horowitz: Andreessen Horowitz is a venture capital firm active in AI and technology investments. It is leading Conway Research's first round of funding as announced in the news, partnering with founder Sigil Wen on Underdog to advance private, on-device AI. Funding: Andreessen Horowitz is leading Conway Research's first round of funding to support Underdog development. Mission: Underdog's mission is to deliver free, capable, reliable, and private AI to billions of people through on-device models. Approach: Underdog focuses on co-designing models and inference engines to run frontier AI capabilities locally on consumer hardware while maintaining privacy.