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UPDATED 2026.06.07
rl-list.com · Vendors · Andon Labs
#12

Andon Labs

Commercial
medium confidence
andonlabs.com ↗ · Status: active confirmed · Founded 2023

Andon Labs is a Y Combinator-backed (W24) startup, formerly Vectorview, building benchmarks and evaluations for AI agents' long-horizon coherence and safety (Vending-Bench, Butter-Bench, Blueprint-Bench) and operating real-world autonomous AI businesses. It is known for high-profile collaborations placing AI-run vending machines/stores in the offices of frontier labs Anthropic (Project Vend) and xAI (Grokbox).

Key facts
Headquarters
San Francisco, USAreported cite
Headcount band
11-50estimated
Total raised
$500K cite
Last round
Y Combinator W24 (pre-seed); raise amount unconfirmedreported cite
SOC 2
unknown
What they sell
evalsconfirmed cite
Open source
unknown
Deployment
unknown

Scale & velocity

Current headcount
~16 employees (as of 2026-04-30 per Tracxn); LinkedIn lists ~18 associated profiles; YC profile states 10 (likely stale)reported cite
Headcount growth
unknown
Open roles
unknown cite
Other locations
Stockholm, Sweden (Andon Cafe; AI 'Mona'), San Francisco, USA (Andon Market retail store, Cow Hollow; AI 'Luna')reported cite
Distributed / remote
unknown

Research depth

Has researchers
yesconfirmed cite
Researcher count
~7 (counted as authors on the Butter-Bench paper; not a full team census)estimated cite
Backgrounds
Lukas Petersson (CEO, co-founder), previously co-founded Vectorview, Axel Backlund (CTO, co-founder), Emil Froberg, co-founder (Vectorview/Andon Labs)reported cite
Papers / benchmarks
Vending-Bench: Testing long-term coherence in agents (https://andonlabs.com/evals/vending-bench), Vending-Bench 2 (https://andonlabs.com/evals/vending-bench-2), Butter-Bench: Evaluating LLM Controlled Robots for Practical Intelligence (arXiv:2510.21860), Blueprint-Bench, Andon FM (AI-run radio benchmark), Project Vend (real-world AI vending machine, collaboration with Anthropic)confirmed cite

Capital

Total raised
unknown (PitchBook reports ~$500K; Tracxn lists unfunded, sources directly conflict) cite
Last round
Y Combinator W24 (pre-seed); raise amount unconfirmedreported cite
Investors
Y Combinator (W24)reported cite
Valuation
unknown
Revenue signals
unknown cite

Security & compliance

SOC 2
unknown
Other certifications
unknown
Security page
unknown

Product

What they sell
evalsconfirmed cite
Open source
unknown
License
unknown
Deployment model
unknown
Maturity
GA (benchmarks publicly published; autonomous deployments live)reported cite
Notable customers
Anthropic verified xAI verified cite

Buyer analysis

Best fit: Buyers wanting long-horizon agent coherence/safety benchmarks and real-world autonomous-operation stress tests, with a frontier-lab-adjacent, irreverent eval style.

How we verified this

Confirmed this is the correct entity matching the directory note "agent benchmarks with a sense of humor": Andon Labs (formerly Vectorview), YC W24, makers of Vending-Bench/Butter-Bench/Blueprint-Bench and operator of AI-run vending machines/stores. Highest-risk corrections: (1) total_raised downgraded to unknown, the ~$500K is single-source (PitchBook snippet) and conflicts with Tracxn's 'unfunded', with no announcement to corroborate; (2) notable_investors trimmed to YC only, since the other five names lack primary sourcing and conflict with the unfunded listing; (3) removed unverified founder-background claims (ex-Google, Carnegie Mellon). Customer ties strengthened: Anthropic's own Project Vend page names "our partners at Andon Labs" and xAI's own Grok account confirms Grokbox was "built with Andon Labs," so both frontier-lab ties are third-party/first-party confirmed, but I flagged that these are partnerships/collaborations, not confirmed paying customers. Headcount (~16, band 11-50), founded 2023 (with Vectorview-predecessor caveat), SF/Stockholm dual presence, evals positioning, and has_researchers all hold up. SOC2/certs/security correctly unknown. Overall confidence: medium.

Related vendors

Sources

  1. andonlabs.com/ · 2026-06-07, Official site (403 to fetcher; details via search snippets). Products: Vending-Bench, Butter-Bench, Blueprint-Bench, Andon FM.
  2. andonlabs.com/evals/vending-bench · 2026-06-07, Vending-Bench benchmark page
  3. andonlabs.com/evals/vending-bench-2 · 2026-06-07, Vending-Bench 2 benchmark page
  4. andonlabs.com/evals/butter-bench · 2026-06-07, Butter-Bench benchmark page
  5. andonlabs.com/join · 2026-06-07, Careers page
  6. arxiv.org/abs/2510.21860 · 2026-06-07, Butter-Bench paper; authors include Andon Labs team (~7)
  7. www.ycombinator.com/companies/andon-labs · 2026-06-07, YC W24, founded 2023, SF, mission, founder Lukas Petersson
  8. tracxn.com/d/companies/andonlabs/__kbDcsnD7GXkDkPhJe7NzhyYdc1aYNmLVZaGPy · 2026-06-07, Founded 2023, SF HQ, ~16 employees (2026-04-30), lists as unfunded (conflict), founders Emil Froberg/Lukas Petersson/Axel Backlund
  9. pitchbook.com/profiles/company/541549-09 · 2026-06-07, Funding ~$500K reported; investor list (403 to fetcher, via search snippets)
  10. www.crunchbase.com/organization/andon-labs · 2026-06-07, Company/funding profile (403 to fetcher)
  11. www.linkedin.com/company/andonlabs · 2026-06-07, Public snippet: ~18 profiles, Information Services, SF + Stockholm locations, specialties
  12. www.linkedin.com/posts/emil-froberg_i-co-founded-vectorview-now-andon-la · 2026-06-07, Confirms Vectorview -> Andon Labs rebrand; Emil Froberg co-founder
  13. www.linkedin.com/posts/andonlabs_vectorview-is-now-andon-labs-we-help-fr · 2026-06-07, Official rebrand announcement (~late 2024)
  14. fortune.com/2026/06/02/anthropic-office-vending-machine-ai-agents-vendo- · 2026-06-07, Anthropic Project Vend; scaled to stores/cafes; multi-agent CEO model; employs humans
  15. www.pymnts.com/artificial-intelligence-2/2026/andon-labs-handed-an-ai-a- · 2026-06-07, Andon Market SF retail store details
  16. andonlabs.com/blog/ai-cafe-stockholm · 2026-06-07, Stockholm AI cafe 'Mona'
  17. x.com/andonlabs/status/1943182987371098151 · 2026-06-07, xAI invited Andon Labs; Grok 4 tops Vending-Bench
  18. x.com/grok/status/1947365557248135298 · 2026-06-07, xAI office 'Grokbox' built with Andon Labs
  19. www.businesstoday.in/amp/technology/story/meet-mona-the-ai-running-a-rea · 2026-06-07, Mona cafe earned ~44,000 SEK in 2 weeks
  20. www.cognitiverevolution.ai/autonomous-organizations-vending-bench-beyond · 2026-06-07, Founder interview
Last updated 2026-06-07 · Every quantitative field carries a source and a confidence tag. Fields we could not source publicly are marked unknown, never estimated. See the methodology.