Flapping Airplanes Valuation, Funding & Investors

Flapping Airplanes is valued at $1.5B as of January 2026.

Last Flapping Airplanes valuation

$1.5B

Seed · Jan 2026

Last Flapping Airplanes funding round

$180M

Seed · Jan 2026

Cumulative funding Flapping Airplanes raised

$180M

across 1 funding round

Key investors in Flapping Airplanes

  • Sequoia Capital
  • GV
  • Index Ventures
  • Menlo Ventures
  • Jeff Dean
  • Andrej Karpathy

Flapping Airplanes Overview

About Flapping Airplanes

Flapping Airplanes is an AI research lab advancing data-efficient models and novel learning paradigms to reduce reliance on large-scale datasets and compute.


Founded

2025

HQ

United StatesUnited States

Status

Privately held

Customer focus

B2B

Revenue model

Licensing

Valuation

$1.5B (Jan 2026)

Flapping Airplanes Valuation

Flapping Airplanes is currently valued at $1.5B, based on its seed round in January 2026.

The $180M round was led by GV, Index Ventures and Sequoia Capital, with participation from Menlo Ventures, Andrej Karpathy, Jeff Dean and Chris Re.

Flapping Airplanes valuation by funding round

Flapping Airplanes valuation by funding round
DateStageValuation
Jan 2026Seed$1.5B

Flapping Airplanes Funding History

Flapping Airplanes has raised a total of $180M across 1 funding round.

Flapping Airplanes funding rounds

Flapping Airplanes funding rounds
DateStageInvestorsRaisedValuationDeal Summary
Jan 2026SeedGV (lead); Index Ventures (lead); Sequoia Capital (lead); Menlo Ventures; Andrej Karpathy; Jeff Dean; Chris Re$180M$1.5BFlapping Airplanes is an AI research lab co-founded by brothers Ben and Asher Spector along with Aidan Smith, focused on developing models that require significantly less data and compute than current approaches. The lab challenges the industry's prevailing "scaling paradigm" by pursuing fundamental research breakthroughs to improve AI training data efficiency by 1000 times, taking inspiration from how the human brain learns rather than optimizing existing architectures through brute-force scaling. In February 2026, the company emerged from stealth with a $180 million seed round co-led by Sequoia Capital, Google Ventures, and Index Ventures, with additional participation from Menlo Ventures. The funding round reflects investor conviction that pure research plays in AI remain underexplored despite dominance of infrastructure-heavy scaling approaches. As of the funding announcement, Flapping Airplanes had not launched commercial products, remaining in a research-first phase focused on attracting exceptional scientific talent and pursuing long-horizon fundamental research toward more efficient large language models and artificial general intelligence.

Who has invested in Flapping Airplanes?

7 investors have backed Flapping Airplanes across its funding rounds, including Sequoia Capital, GV, Index Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Jeff Dean and Andrej Karpathy.

Lead investors include GV, Index Ventures and Sequoia Capital.


Flapping Airplanes Investors

Investors in Flapping Airplanes by funding rounds participated
InvestorHQRoundsRoleFirst check
Index VenturesUnited KingdomLondon1LeadJan 2026
Menlo VenturesUnited StatesSan Francisco, CA1ParticipantJan 2026
GVUnited StatesSan Francisco, CA1LeadJan 2026
Sequoia CapitalUnited StatesSan Francisco, CA1LeadJan 2026
Andrej KarpathyUnited StatesSan Francisco, CA1ParticipantJan 2026

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Flapping Airplanes Competitors

Flapping Airplanes competitors include listed companies like Shenzhen Ysstech Info and PCITECH, and private ones like Anew Labs, CodeRabbit, Magic and Meshy AI.

Public and private companies comparable to Flapping Airplanes
CompanyHQStatusRevenueEBITDAValuationRevenue Multiple
Anew LabsChinaShanghaiPrivate--$1.5B-
CodeRabbitUnited StatesSan Francisco, CAPrivate$15M-$1.5B-
MagicUnited StatesSan Francisco, CAPrivate$147M-$1.5B10.2x
Meshy AIUnited StatesSan Jose, CAPrivate$30M-$1.5B50.0x
Shenzhen Ysstech InfoChinaChinaPublicly listed$205M$4M$1.5B-
PCITECHChinaChinaPublicly listed$1.5B$53M$1.4B0.9x

Flapping Airplanes Public Comps

Flapping Airplanes is still privately-owned, but its public comps include Shenzhen Ysstech Info, PCITECH, BigBear.ai, TRS Information Technology, Arcs Co, Wenge AI, C3.ai, Optasia, iFLYHealth and Extreme Vision.

Last FYEV/RevenueEV/EBITDA
RevenueEBITDALast FYLTM2027ELast FYLTM2027E
Shenzhen Ysstech Info$205M$4M7.2x-378.8x-
PCITECH$1.5B$53M0.8x0.9x24.1x-
BigBear.ai$128M($295M)8.3x7.6x(3.6x)(27.8x)
TRS Information Technology$76M($20M)19.3x19.7x(73.5x)478.8x
Arcs Co$4B$185M0.2x0.2x4.8x4.9x
Wenge AI$60M($20M)27.6x-(82.7x)-
C3.ai$250M($484M)4.3x4.5x(2.2x)(6.2x)
Optasia$265M$79M4.3x3.6x14.5x9.1x

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Common questions about Flapping Airplanes

When was Flapping Airplanes founded?Flapping Airplanes was founded in 2025.
Where is Flapping Airplanes headquartered?Flapping Airplanes is headquartered in United States.
Is Flapping Airplanes publicly listed?No, Flapping Airplanes is a private, VC-backed company.
What is Flapping Airplanes' valuation?Flapping Airplanes was last valued at $1.5B in its seed round in January 2026.
How much funding has Flapping Airplanes raised?Flapping Airplanes has raised $180M across 1 funding round.
What was Flapping Airplanes' last funding round?Flapping Airplanes' last funding round was a $180M seed round in January 2026, led by GV, Index Ventures and Sequoia Capital.
Who are Flapping Airplanes' investors?Flapping Airplanes' investors include Index Ventures, Menlo Ventures, GV, Sequoia Capital, Andrej Karpathy, Jeff Dean and Chris Re.
Which companies are comparable to Flapping Airplanes?Companies comparable to Flapping Airplanes include Anew Labs, CodeRabbit, Magic, Meshy AI, Shenzhen Ysstech Info and PCITECH.

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