Nous Research, the startup behind the open-source Hermes Agent, announced on 7 October 2026 that it had raised $90 million. TechCrunch reported the same day that the round is a Series B at a $1.5 billion valuation, led by Robot Ventures.
Nous says the money will fund “Hermes for Businesses”, a version of its agent for companies. The round closes talks that were first reported in July, which we covered at the time.
In a post signed by chief executive Dillon Rolnick, Nous names its investors as NVIDIA, Microsoft’s M12, Samsung, Robot Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Y Combinator and Menlo Ventures, “among others”. TechCrunch adds 1789 Capital, and reports that the round brings the three-year-old company’s total funding to $158 million.
“Somehow, $90 million is modest in modern fundraising,” the post says. “We at Nous have always delivered more with less, and we are proud of our resourcefulness in an age of waste.”
The post does not state the valuation; the $1.5 billion figure is TechCrunch’s, which it says confirms its July reporting.
Nous Research’s funding as TechCrunch reported it on 7 October 2026: a $90 million Series B and $158 million in total. The $68 million raised before this round is our subtraction.
Business Pill · SWITCHING COSTS
A short explainer of switching costs: what it takes for a customer to move from one product to another, and why vendors try to raise them. It teaches the general idea only and says nothing about any company in this story.
The key insight: As we read it, the $90 million funds a product for companies built on an agent anyone can already copy: Hermes Agent is MIT-licensed, and the money goes to Hermes for Businesses, which Nous says it will also build in the open. Nous’s post puts its bet plainly, that tomorrow’s moats will be built around execution, trust and extensibility rather than around the code itself.
The investors Nous Research names in its post of 7 October 2026, which lists them “among others”; highlighted is Robot Ventures, which TechCrunch says led the round. TechCrunch also names 1789 Capital.
What Hermes Is
Nous says it released Hermes Agent under an MIT license in February. It describes an agent that remembers projects, writes reusable skills as it works and carries that knowledge across sessions, with users choosing where it runs and which models it uses.
“Today, Hermes has been cloned over 24 million times and, to our best internal estimates, drives approximately 2.5% of all global token usage,” the post says. Both figures are Nous’s own; the token share is labelled by the company as an internal estimate.
Hermes for Businesses
The capital is meant to take Hermes into companies. Nous says Hermes for Businesses “will cut your spend by letting you choose the best models at the best prices for your goals”, will let AI use “scale safely and privately”, and will give firms “dominion over your institutional knowledge.”
“One principle has stayed constant since the first Hermes release: the people using an AI system should control it,” the post says. “Hermes Business extends that principle to companies.”
The post also argues against what it calls “fearmongering pleas for sweeping regulation”, and says the capital will build an open alternative that is “safer” because it can be audited.
The Structural Read
Nous’s post says it released Hermes Agent under an MIT license in February and that it has since been cloned over 24 million times. On Nous’s own numbers, the agent is already widely distributed before any businessproduct ships.
The post says Hermes for Businesses will let companies choose models by price and goal, keep their AI use private and own their institutional knowledge. As we read it, those are the parts of the offer that go beyond the free agent.
TechCrunch reports that the round confirms talks first reported in July, when we wrote about a raise at $1.5 billion led by Robot Ventures; the October round is larger than the $75 million-plus target reported then.
Nous Research, ‘A Note on Our Fundraise’, 7 October 2026
“There are few benefits to keeping a technology like Hermes Agent locked down and many to proliferating it.”
Three Implications
COMPANIES RUNNING AI AGENTS Nous says Hermes for Businesses will let them pick the best models at the best prices for their goals and keep their AI use private.
CLOSED AGENT VENDORS Nous says users don’t want lock-in and positions an MIT-licensed agent that companies can run and inspect themselves.
OPEN-SOURCE AI INVESTORS TechCrunch reports that backers including NVIDIA, Samsung and Robot Ventures valued a company built on a free, open agent at $1.5 billion.
The framework puts it this way: “Close the SCARCE layer (keep proprietary) + Open the ABUNDANT layer (commoditize)”.
As we read it, Nous has opened the agent itself, which its post describes as cheap to reproduce, and is raising money to build the business layer around it, the part its post says companies will rely on for model choice, privacy and institutional knowledge.
What Is Not Established
Nous’s post does not give the valuation, the round’s lead, revenue, pricing for Hermes for Businesses or a launch date for it; the valuation and lead come from TechCrunch. The 24 million clones and the 2.5% token share are Nous’s figures and the post does not say how either is measured. The $68 million raised before this round in our chart is our subtraction from TechCrunch’s $158 million total.
Nous Research has closed the round that was reported as being in talks in July: $90 million, at a $1.5 billion valuation by TechCrunch’s account, from a list of backers that includes NVIDIA, Microsoft’s M12 and Samsung.
What the money buys is a business version of an agent that Nous says is already one of the most-used open-source agents; the post does not yet say what companies will pay for it.
A note on sourcing. On 12 October 2026 we read in full Nous Research’s post of 7 October 2026 announcing the round, and TechCrunch’s report of the same day, both linked below. The quotations, the investor list and the Hermes figures come from Nous’s post; the Series B label, the $1.5 billion valuation, the lead investor, 1789 Capital and the $158 million total are TechCrunch’s, and the $68 million is our subtraction.
We have not used revenue figures that TechCrunch attributes to The Wall Street Journal, because they do not appear in Nous’s post. Nothing here is investment advice.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur, HackerNoon and Search Engine People. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
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