Nous Research, the developer behind the open-source Hermes AI agent, has confirmed it secured a $90 million Series B funding round, valuing the three-year-old startup at $1.5 billion. The announcement follows earlier reporting by TechCrunch and was detailed by The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.
The investment round was led by Robot Ventures and included participation from major tech and venture capital backers such as Nvidia, Union Square Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Samsung, and 1789 Capital. Donald Trump Jr. serves as a partner at 1789 Capital. This latest injection of capital brings the company’s total fundraising to $158 million.
The Hermes agent has gained significant traction among developers and individual users, with its open-source code cloned more than 24 million times. Nous Research estimates that the platform accounts for approximately 2.5% of global AI token usage.
Going forward, the startup intends to leverage the new funds to expand into the corporate sector through “Hermes for Businesses.” This enterprise offering allows companies to deploy customized AI agents capable of managing complex, multi-step workflows while ensuring data remains private and secure.
Financially, Nous Research reported annualized revenues of roughly $36 million by mid-September 2026. According to The WSJ, the company projects its revenue will exceed $100 million before the end of the year.
Nvidia and Samsung investing together is a strong signal. The enterprise AI race is definitely heating up this quarter.
I just want to know: does ‘private and secure’ mean truly local deployment, or is it just another SaaS trap in disguise?
A $1.5B valuation with $36M revenue seems high. Let’s see if they actually hit that $100M projection by year-end.
Great, another unicorn chasing enterprise dollars. I wonder if the open-source spirit will survive the corporate pivot?
Twenty-four million clones is massive adoption. Moving to enterprise now feels like a natural evolution for Hermes.