{"id":"1678a465-90a4-4979-a518-932900565343","name":"Tetsuwan Scientific","slug":"tetsuwan-scientific","description":"Tetsuwan Scientific is a San Francisco-based startup developing autonomous AI scientists that merge robotics and artificial intelligence to conduct laboratory experiments independently. Founded in 2023 by Cristian Ponce (CEO) and Theo Schafer (CTO), the company's AI-powered robotic systems use modified white-label lab robots to perform high-sophistication tasks, react to data, reason, and make decisions. Tetsuwan has deployed its inaugural autonomous AI system in a rare disease gene therapeutics lab.","status":null,"founded":2023,"hq":"San Francisco, CA, USA","fundingTotal":"2700000","type":"hardware","reviewStatus":"reviewed","sources":[{"url":"https://www.synbiobeta.com/read/first-autonomous-robotic-scientist-launched-as-tetsuwan-scientific-secures-2-7m","title":"First Autonomous Robotic Scientist Hits Labs as Tetsuwan Scientific Secures 2.7M","sourceName":"SynBioBeta"}],"keyFacts":[{"label":"CEO","value":"Cristian Ponce (Co-founder, Caltech biological engineering)"},{"label":"CTO","value":"Theo Schafer (Co-founder, ETH Zurich / MIT)"},{"label":"Pre-seed","value":"$2.7M (November 2024, led by 2048 Ventures)"},{"label":"Team size","value":"7 people (Caltech, ETH Zurich, MIT, UC Davis)"},{"label":"Advisor","value":"Aaron Kimball (former CTO of Zymergen)"}],"aliases":[],"collisionRisk":"low","reviewNote":null,"atsProvider":null,"atsSlug":null,"createdAt":"2026-07-06T05:05:44.485Z","updatedAt":"2026-07-06T05:26:31.635Z","jsonLd":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Organization","@id":"https://registry.deploy.report/companies/tetsuwan-scientific","url":"https://registry.deploy.report/companies/tetsuwan-scientific","name":"Tetsuwan Scientific","description":"Tetsuwan Scientific is a San Francisco-based startup developing autonomous AI scientists that merge robotics and artificial intelligence to conduct laboratory experiments independently. Founded in 2023 by Cristian Ponce (CEO) and Theo Schafer (CTO), the company's AI-powered robotic systems use modified white-label lab robots to perform high-sophistication tasks, react to data, reason, and make decisions. Tetsuwan has deployed its inaugural autonomous AI system in a rare disease gene therapeutics lab.","identifier":"1678a465-90a4-4979-a518-932900565343","foundingDate":"2023","address":"San Francisco, CA, USA","publisher":{"@id":"https://deploy.report/#organization"}},"framework_metadata":{"framework_schema_version":"0.1.0","verification_status":"verified","maturity_stage":null,"lifecycle_state":null,"architectural_position":{"cohort":null,"sub_cohorts":[]},"within_cohort_verified_vs_claimed_pair":null,"cap_flags":[],"verification_depth":{"sources_count":1,"primary_source_types":[]}}}