Nous Research raises 90 million dollars at 1.5 billion valuation

Nous Research raised a $90 million Series B at a $1.5 billion valuation, led by Robot Ventures with Nvidia, Union Square Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Samsung and 1789 Capital participating, to push its open-source Hermes agent into enterprise software.

Why it matters: The round values at unicorn status an open-weights lab whose Hermes agent already drives roughly 2.5 percent of global AI token usage, per the startup's own estimates.

Data as of TechCrunch reporting October 7, 2026; revenue figures via the Wall Street Journal as cited in the article. Usage and revenue numbers are company or reported estimates.

Nous Research confirmed Wednesday it has raised $90 million in Series B funding at a $1.5 billion valuation, bringing the three-year-old startup’s total funding to $158 million. The round was led by Robot Ventures and includes Nvidia, Union Square Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Samsung and 1789 Capital, and will fund “Hermes for Businesses,” letting companies deploy customized AI agents for multi-step workflows while keeping data private.

The startup says its open-source Hermes agent has been cloned more than 24 million times and accounts for about 2.5 percent of global AI token usage, and the Wall Street Journal reported it was near $36 million in annualized revenue by mid-September with expectations to pass $100 million before year end.

Nous Research raises 90 million dollars at 1.5 billion valuation

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