Nous Research confirms $1.5B valuation, launches Hermes for Businesses

Nous Research, the startup behind the open source Hermes Agent, has confirmed it raised a $90 million Series B at a $1.5 billion valuation, matching TechCrunch’s earlier reporting on the deal. Robot Ventures led the round, with participation from Nvidia, Union Square Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Samsung, and 1789 Capital — the investment firm where Donald Trump Jr. is a partner. The new round brings the three-year-old startup’s total funding raised to date to $158 million.

Hermes Agent, the company’s open source agent model, has built a sizable following among developers and individual users: it has been cloned more than 24 million times and, by Nous Research’s own estimate, drives roughly 2.5% of global AI token usage.

The fresh capital is earmarked for Nous Research’s expansion into the enterprise market through a new offering called “Hermes for Businesses.” The product lets companies deploy customized AI agents that can handle multi-step workflows while keeping their data private and secure.

Nous Research was generating roughly $36 million in annualized revenue as of mid-September 2026 and expects to cross $100 million before the end of the year, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Why it matters

Hermes Agent’s jump from developer tool to enterprise product will test whether open source AI agents can convert adoption into real enterprise revenue, not just usage share. The breadth of backers — from Nvidia to a Trump-linked investment firm — also signals how much strategic interest already surrounds Nous Research’s approach to agents.