Nous Research raises $90 million at $1.5 billion valuation to take its open-source Hermes agent to businesses

Nous Research, the startup behind the open-source Hermes Agent, has raised a $90 million Series B at a $1.5 billion valuation, TechCrunch confirmed on October 7.

The round was led by Robot Ventures, with participation from backers including Nvidia, Union Square Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Samsung and 1789 Capital, where Donald Trump Jr. is a partner. The financing brings the three-year-old startup’s total funding to $158 million. According to The Next Web, chief executive Dillon Rolnick also listed Microsoft’s M12 and Y Combinator among investors in a note on the company’s website; the valuation was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, and Nous did not give one itself. “Somehow, $90 million is modest in modern fundraising. We at Nous have always delivered more with less,” Rolnick wrote.

The startup estimates that Hermes Agent has been cloned more than 24 million times and drives roughly 2.5% of global AI token usage. The Next Web reported that Nous released Hermes under the MIT licence in February; the agent remembers projects, writes reusable skills as it works and lets users choose which models it runs, and it works on macOS, Windows and Linux and through apps such as Telegram, Slack and WhatsApp.

The new capital will fund Hermes for Businesses, which lets companies deploy customized AI agents that handle multi-step workflows while keeping their data private and secure. Nous was at roughly $36 million in annualized revenue by mid-September 2026 and expects to pass $100 million before the end of the year, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Personal AI agents have drawn large sums this year, The Next Web noted: Instinct raised $1 billion at a $10 billion valuation, and Meta launched its Muse agent in September.