# Cory Li

> Cory Li is the CEO and co-founder of Spellbrush, the San Francisco-based generative AI studio behind niji-journey - the world's leading AI anime art platform built in collaboration with Midjourney. A MIT-trained bioengineer turned AI entrepreneur, Li previously co-founded Benchling (YC S12), the biotech R&D platform that went on to become a unicorn. At Spellbrush (YC W18), he leads a 31-person team building AI-powered anime games and creative tools - from WaifuLabs' anime portrait generator to Arrowmancer, an anime RPG where players design characters using generative AI, to niji-journey's mobile app with millions of users.

- **Role:** CEO at Spellbrush
- **Organizations:** Spellbrush, Benchling, Y Combinator
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** B.S. Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (Course 6) and Biology/Bioengineering (Course 20), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
- **Known for:** Co-founded Benchling, now a biotech unicorn serving thousands of scientists globally, Built niji-journey in collaboration with Midjourney - the world's leading anime AI image generator, Pioneered AI-generated character design in video games with Arrowmancer

## Career timeline

- **2011** — Software Engineering Intern at Venuetastic
- **2012** — Published phage-displayed peptide library diversity research (Molecules journal)
- **2012** — Co-founded Benchling (YC S12), a biotech R&D platform
- **2012** — Filed WIPO patent for automated BioBrick assembly using bead-based purification
- **2013** — Published research on parasitic sequences in phage display screening (Nucleic Acids Research)
- **2015** — Departed Benchling; worked as Bioautomation/Software Consultant (freelance)
- **2017** — Co-founded Spellbrush with Haitao Mao and Ruwen Liu
- **2018** — Spellbrush joins Y Combinator Winter 2018 batch; raises $130K seed funding
- **2018** — Launched WaifuLabs, an AI anime portrait generator using GANs
- **2022** — Launched Arrowmancer, an AI-illustrated anime gacha RPG
- **2022** — Collaborated with Midjourney to release niji-journey, an anime-specialized AI image generator
- **2024** — Featured speaker at Stochastic Labs; niji-journey reaches millions of users globally
- **2026** — niji-journey V7 launched with ~23 billion parameters, fine-tuned for anime aesthetic

## Achievements

- Co-founded Benchling, now a biotech unicorn serving thousands of scientists globally
- Built niji-journey in collaboration with Midjourney - the world's leading anime AI image generator
- Pioneered AI-generated character design in video games with Arrowmancer
- Led Spellbrush from a $130K seed to a 31-person studio
- Published three academic works and a WIPO patent in synthetic biology while at MIT
- Built and managed large-scale GPU cluster infrastructure for generative AI research
- Two-time Y Combinator founder (S12 with Benchling, W18 with Spellbrush)

## Latest updates

- **2026-04** — niji-journey mobile app updated on Google Play, continuing active development
- **2026-01** — niji-journey V7 released with ~23 billion parameters, the most advanced anime AI model to date
- **2024-02** — Cory Li featured in YouTube interview discussing Spellbrush's AI game development approach
- **2024-01** — Spellbrush listed as a resident studio at Stochastic Labs

## Links

- Website: https://cory.li
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/scoryli
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/cixelyn

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/cory-li
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-14