Nous Research, the startup behind the open-source Hermes AI agent, is finalizing a new funding round of at least $75 million at a $1.5 billion valuation, according to three sources with knowledge of the deal. The round is led by Robot Ventures with significant participation from USV and other prominent investors.
The new round comes less than three months after Nous announced its $50 million Series A, signaling strong investor demand for open-source AI agent platforms. The company fielded a high level of interest from investors, according to the people familiar with the matter.
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Hermes: An open-source agent with built-in skills
Weeks after OpenClaw’s agent went viral, Nous Research released its own competitor called Hermes. OpenClaw is an agent that runs locally on a PC and can perform tasks on behalf of the user. One key difference is that Hermes shipped with built-in “skills,” such as web search, coding and image understanding. Plus, it was designed to automatically learn from people’s usage and build more skills without any intervention required.
Just like OpenClaw, users can automate tasks with Hermes and chat with these agents or receive messages from them in apps like Telegram and Discord. These tools have become increasingly popular as they allow users to run their AI agents remotely and around the clock.
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GitHub traction and business model
Open-source and widely adopted, Hermes has amassed a massive following on GitHub, boasting roughly 214,000 stars and nearly 40,000 forks. Developers can run Hermes on a desktop or on a virtual private server. But Nous Research also offers a cloud-hosted version, which some users may find to be more user-friendly, avoiding any setting up on their own machines. The hosted version is available via various paid tiers ranging from $20 to $200 a month.
Sources say the new funding will help to expand Hermes products and business model further. Besides Hermes development, Nous Research has a decentralized network to contribute hardware for compute and training. Plus, it has released language models focused on coding and math.
Background and investors
Nous Research was founded in 2023 by Jeffrey Quesnelle, Karan Malhotra, Ryan Teknium, and Shivani Mitra. Before this round, it had raised a total of $70 million in funding from investors including Approach, Robot Ventures, North Island Ventures, OSS Capital, and Balaji Srinivasan, according to Crunchbase.
Nous Research declined to comment. USV and Robot Ventures didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Nous Research?
Nous Research is a startup founded in 2023 that develops open-source AI agents and language models. Its flagship product is the Hermes AI agent, which can automate tasks like web search, coding, and image understanding.
How does Hermes compare to other AI agents?
Hermes is open-source and can run locally on a PC or via a cloud-hosted version. It ships with built-in skills like web search and coding, and it automatically learns from user behavior to build new skills without manual intervention.
What will the new funding be used for?
According to sources, the new funding will help expand Hermes products and the company’s business model, likely including further development of its decentralized compute network and specialized language models.
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