Hermes agent maker Nous Research in talks for new funding at $1.5B valuation
AI startup Nous Research is nearing a $1.5 billion valuation following a new funding round led by Robot Ventures. The company is known for its open-source Hermes agent, which competes with other local AI automation tools.
Why it matters
The massive valuation underscores the intense investor interest in open-source AI agents and decentralized compute infrastructure.
Nous Research, the startup behind the open-source Hermes agent, is finalizing a new round of funding led by Robot Ventures, with significant participation from USV and other prominent investors at a $1.5 billion valuation, according to three sources with knowledge of the deal. The company is raising at least $75 million, and fielded a high level of interest from investors, according to the people. The new round is coming less than three months after Nous announced its $50 million Series A .
Nous Research declined to comment. USV and Robot Ventures didn’t respond to our request for comment.
The company was founded in 2023 by Jeffrey Quesnelle, Karan Malhotra, Ryan Teknium, Shivani Mitra. Before this round, it had raised a total of $70 million in funding from investors including Paradigm, Robot Ventures, North Island Ventures, OSS Capital, and Balaji Srinivasan, according to Crunchbase.
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