Three-year-old startup Nous Research secures $90 million in Series B funding, pushing its valuation to $1.5 billion as it pivots toward enterprise agent workflows.
The screens in the Nous Research office look different today. With a fresh $90 million Series B round finalized, the three-year-old startup has officially crossed the $1.5 billion valuation mark, vaulting into the ranks of tech’s newest unicorns.
This capital injection—led by Robot Ventures with support from Nvidia. Union Square Ventures. Menlo Ventures. Samsung. and 1789 Capital—pushes the firm’s total lifetime funding to $158 million. The arrival of 1789 Capital, where Donald Trump Jr. serves as a partner, underscores the growing diversity of financial backers betting on the firm’s rapid ascent.
The math behind the valuation is anchored in the massive reach of the company’s open-source Hermes agent. Developers have cloned the software more than 24 million times. a footprint so large that the company estimates it accounts for roughly 2.5% of global AI token usage. It is a staggering level of ubiquity for a project that began as a niche tool for researchers and individuals.
This trajectory is mirrored in the startup’s ledger. By mid-September 2026, the company reached an annualized revenue of approximately $36 million. Projections now aim for the business to surpass the $100 million mark before the close of 2026.
The shift from open-source popularity to corporate utility is the central challenge ahead. The new funding is earmarked for “Hermes for Businesses,” a platform designed to let companies deploy customized AI agents. These systems are being built to manage complex. multi-step workflows while promising to keep sensitive corporate data behind a secure. private wall.
What happens next depends on this transition from a developer’s favorite to an enterprise necessity. The company is betting that the same autonomy that drove 24 million clones among enthusiasts can be disciplined and secured for the bottom line of the modern corporation.
Nous Research AI agents enterprise AI Series B funding Hermes AI startup valuation