Nous Research, Creator of Hermes Agent, Pursues New Funding with $1.5 Billion Valuation

Nous Research, the company behind the open-source Hermes agent, is on the verge of completing a new funding round spearheaded by Robot Ventures, with solid support from USV and other prominent investors, achieving a valuation of $1.5 billion, according to three insider sources. The firm aims to raise at least $75 million, having garnered significant interest from investors, as reported by these individuals. This funding endeavor comes less than three months after Nous announced its $50 million Series A.

Nous Research declined to comment. USV and Robot Ventures have not yet replied to our inquiries.

Founded in 2023 by Jeffrey Quesnelle, Karan Malhotra, Ryan Teknium, and Shivani Mitra, the company has previously secured a total of $70 million from investors such as Paradigm, Robot Ventures, North Island Ventures, OSS Capital, and Balaji Srinivasan, as per Crunchbase.

In addition to the Hermes development, Nous Research is constructing a decentralized network to provide hardware for computing and training applications. The company has also released language models that specifically target coding and mathematics.

Following the viral success of Openclaw’s agent, Nous Research launched its competitor, Hermes. OpenClaw operates locally on a PC and can perform tasks on the user’s behalf. A key difference is that Hermes is equipped with inherent “skills,” including web searching, coding, and image recognition, allowing it to autonomously learn from user interactions and develop additional skills without requiring human intervention.

Like Openclaw, users can automate tasks with Hermes and interact with these agents or receive notifications in apps like Telegram and Discord. These tools have gained immense popularity, enabling users to operate their AI agents remotely and continuously.

Being open-source and extensively used, Hermes has attracted a strong following on GitHub, boasting approximately 214,000 stars and nearly 40,000 forks. Developers can run Hermes on their desktops or using virtual private servers.

Nous Research also offers a cloud-hosted version, which may be more convenient for some users, as it removes the need to set up on their own devices. This hosted solution is available in various paid tiers, ranging from $20 to $200 per month.

Insiders indicate that the new funding will further develop the Hermes product line and enhance its business model.