Nous Research, the startup behind the open-source Hermes agent, is in talks to raise a new funding round that would value the company at $1.5 billion, according to three sources familiar with the deal. The round is being led by Robot Ventures, with significant participation from USV and other prominent investors, and the company is seeking at least $75 million, the sources said.
A fast-moving round for a fast-growing AI agent startup
The fundraising discussions come as interest in AI agent startups continues to accelerate. Nous Research has drawn substantial attention from investors, according to the people with knowledge of the deal, suggesting the company’s combination of open-source distribution and consumer-friendly agent features has resonated with backers looking for the next breakout product category in artificial intelligence.
Nous Research declined to comment on the financing. USV and Robot Ventures did not respond to requests for comment.
What Nous Research has built
Founded in 2023 by Jeffrey Quesnelle, Karan Malhotra, Ryan Teknium and Shivani Mitra, Nous Research first gained traction through Hermes, its open-source agent product. The company later positioned Hermes as a competitor to Openclaw’s agent, which had gone viral shortly before Hermes was released.
Like Openclaw, Hermes is designed to run tasks on behalf of a user. But Hermes shipped with built-in “skills,” including web search, coding and image understanding, and was designed to learn automatically from how people use it, building more capabilities over time without manual intervention. Nous Research has also released language models focused on coding and math, broadening its technical portfolio beyond the agent itself.
How Hermes is used
Hermes is meant to automate work and keep operating beyond a user’s immediate attention. Users can chat with the agent or receive messages from it in apps such as Telegram and Discord, making it suitable for workflows that continue remotely and around the clock. That remote operation has become a notable draw for AI agent tools, which are increasingly being positioned as assistants that can handle tasks continuously rather than only during a live interaction.
- Users can automate tasks through Hermes.
- The agent can be accessed in chat-like interfaces.
- It can send messages through Telegram and Discord.
- It is designed to work remotely and continuously.
Open-source reach and developer adoption
One of Hermes’ defining traits is its open-source availability and broad adoption among developers. According to the material provided, the project has amassed roughly 214,000 stars on GitHub and nearly 40,000 forks, an unusually large footprint for a startup product. Developers can run Hermes either on a desktop machine or on a virtual private server, offering flexibility for users who want to host the software themselves.
That open-source model appears to be a key part of Nous Research’s appeal. In a crowded AI market where many products are locked behind proprietary systems, Hermes’ availability to developers has helped it gain a large following. The scale of its GitHub presence also suggests that the product has become a widely recognized reference point in the agent category, at least among technically oriented users.
A hosted version for users who want less setup
Nous Research also offers a cloud-hosted version of Hermes, targeting users who may prefer not to manage their own infrastructure. According to the source material, the hosted option is available via paid tiers ranging from $20 to $200 per month. That pricing structure gives the company a commercial path alongside its open-source distribution, allowing it to serve both self-hosting developers and customers looking for a more turnkey experience.
The availability of a hosted version could also help Nous Research expand beyond core developers. While running software on a desktop or VPS may appeal to technical users, a cloud-based offering lowers the barrier for broader adoption. The company’s funding plans, sources said, are expected to help expand Hermes’ products and business model further.
Previous financing and investor base
Before the current round, Nous Research had raised a total of $70 million, according to Crunchbase. That funding came from a group of investors that included Paradigm, Robot Ventures, North Island Ventures, OSS Capital and Balaji Srinivasan.
The new round would mark a major step up in valuation for the startup. A $1.5 billion mark would place Nous Research among the more highly valued companies in the agent and open-source AI ecosystem, reflecting the speed at which investor enthusiasm can build around products that combine technical adoption with clear commercialization potential.
What the new capital could support
Sources said the new funding will help expand Hermes’ products and business model further. While the material does not specify the exact use of proceeds, a round of this size would typically give a startup more room to invest in product development, infrastructure, go-to-market efforts and broader ecosystem growth. For Nous Research, that could mean extending the agent’s capabilities, improving its cloud offering or building additional ways to monetize the platform.
The company’s mix of open-source distribution and paid hosted tiers positions it in a hybrid category increasingly common in AI: free or community-driven software that can funnel users into a paid service layer. In Hermes’ case, the large developer audience may offer an especially strong base from which to convert users into paying customers or enterprise-oriented deployments.
Why investors are paying attention
AI agents have emerged as one of the most closely watched segments in the broader AI boom. The appeal is straightforward: instead of simply generating text or images, agents can take action, complete tasks and coordinate with users over time. Hermes fits that pattern, while adding the open-source distribution that has helped it grow quickly among developers.
The reported interest in Nous Research also highlights how investor appetite can build around products that combine technical sophistication with viral adoption. A tool that is both widely used on GitHub and available as a hosted service can present multiple growth paths, which may explain why the company was able to field a high level of interest in the new round, according to the sources.
If completed, the financing would give Nous Research additional resources as it tries to extend Hermes from a popular developer project into a broader AI platform with more durable revenue. For now, though, the company has not publicly confirmed the transaction, and the terms remain based on reporting from people familiar with the deal.
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Source: Original report
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Last Modified: July 14, 2026 at 6:52 pm
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