Hermes maker Nous Research raises $75M at $1.5B valuation — 214k GitHub stars, 100x jump
TL;DR
Nous Research, maker of open-source Hermes agent, closes $75M round at $1.5B valuation.
Nous Research, the developer behind open-source agent Hermes, is finalizing a new funding round led by Robot Ventures with participation from USV, valuing the company at $1.5 billion and raising at least $75 million.
Founded in 2023 by Jeffrey Quesnelle, Karan Malhotra, Ryan Teknium, and Shivani Mitra, the startup previously raised $70M total from Paradigm, Robot Ventures, North Island, OSS Capital, and Balaji Srinivasan. Its flagship Hermes agent has amassed ~214,000 GitHub stars and ~40,000 forks, making it one of the few open-source agents genuinely used by developers.
The cloud-hosted Hermes service runs $20 to $200 per month, converting GitHub traction into recurring revenue. But the valuation jump — roughly 20x from prior total funding to current mark — isn't underwritten by SaaS ARR. Investors are betting Hermes becomes the Hugging Face of open-source agents.
The choice of crypto-native VCs (Robot Ventures, Paradigm, Balaji) rather than mainstream AI-track investors signals the team still treats decentralized training (via subsidiary Psyche Network) as its long-term moat.
If it works, Hermes becomes the default starting point for open-source agent development and 214k stars translate to enterprise contracts. If it doesn't, it's another open-core textbook case where GitHub stars never convert to revenue.
via TechCrunch
Founded in 2023 by Jeffrey Quesnelle, Karan Malhotra, Ryan Teknium, and Shivani Mitra, the startup previously raised $70M total from Paradigm, Robot Ventures, North Island, OSS Capital, and Balaji Srinivasan. Its flagship Hermes agent has amassed ~214,000 GitHub stars and ~40,000 forks, making it one of the few open-source agents genuinely used by developers.
The cloud-hosted Hermes service runs $20 to $200 per month, converting GitHub traction into recurring revenue. But the valuation jump — roughly 20x from prior total funding to current mark — isn't underwritten by SaaS ARR. Investors are betting Hermes becomes the Hugging Face of open-source agents.
The choice of crypto-native VCs (Robot Ventures, Paradigm, Balaji) rather than mainstream AI-track investors signals the team still treats decentralized training (via subsidiary Psyche Network) as its long-term moat.
If it works, Hermes becomes the default starting point for open-source agent development and 214k stars translate to enterprise contracts. If it doesn't, it's another open-core textbook case where GitHub stars never convert to revenue.
via TechCrunch
