Neuron Industries builds the Cortex AIC, a controller that takes the place of a conventional programmable logic controller and includes the Synapse development environment, an operator interface, and a process historian on the same device. Engineers at manufacturers, chemical processors, and energy companies describe the machine behavior they need in plain English and receive deterministic real-time Python they can read and test before it runs. The oversubscribed $10 million seed round co-led by FCVC and Obvious Ventures matters now because those customers are adding production capacity while fewer people remain who can program the legacy tools sold by Rockwell and Siemens. Dennis Ren and Kenneth Rhee founded the company in 2026 in Los Angeles and completed Y Combinator’s Summer 2026 batch before a public launch in August. Ren was the founding electrical engineer at Freeform, where he built custom real-time controls and I/O for an autonomous metal 3D-printing factory after off-the-shelf controllers could not meet the job. Rhee founded WorkIPO, which delivered ERP and manufacturing execution systems to industrial clients, after working on software infrastructure at Amazon. Y Combinator, Thin Line Capital, Zee Prime Capital, and Founder Factor joined the round. Early use includes an eight-hour replacement of a 1991 Siemens controller on a production line at engineered-wood maker CureWood, plus pilots in chemical processing, electronics manufacturing, wastewater treatment, and small modular reactors, with additional work reported at manufacturers including NOX Metals, Lazarus Energy, and Rise Reforming.