Nous Research Secures $90 Million Series B to Bring Hermes AI to the Enterprise

In a significant milestone for the open-source artificial intelligence ecosystem, Nous Research, the developer behind the widely popular Hermes Agent, has officially closed a $90 million Series B funding round. The investment values the three-year-old startup at $1.5 billion, a figure that confirms persistent market speculation and earlier reporting by TechCrunch regarding the company’s fundraising trajectory.

The latest capital injection brings the company’s total funding to $158 million, signaling robust investor confidence in the startup’s ability to bridge the gap between open-source accessibility and enterprise-grade performance. The round was led by Robot Ventures, with a notable roster of participants including Nvidia, Union Square Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Samsung, and 1789 Capital—an investment firm where Donald Trump Jr. serves as a partner.

The Rise of Hermes: From Open-Source Darling to Enterprise Powerhouse

Since its inception, Nous Research has carved out a unique niche in the crowded AI landscape. While many of its contemporaries have focused on closed-loop, proprietary models, Nous Research doubled down on the open-source ethos. The Hermes Agent has become a staple for developers and individual users alike, characterized by its flexibility and ease of deployment. According to company estimates, the agent has been cloned more than 24 million times. Perhaps most impressively, the startup estimates that its models are currently responsible for driving approximately 2.5% of all global AI token usage, a statistic that underscores the immense reach and utility of their technology in a short timeframe.

This widespread adoption has been the primary engine for the company’s meteoric growth. By mid-September 2026, the company reported annualized revenue of approximately $36 million. Even more ambitious is the company’s forward-looking projection: Nous Research expects to exceed $100 million in annualized revenue before the conclusion of 2026, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal. This trajectory places the startup in a rare tier of high-growth AI companies capable of balancing rapid user adoption with substantial commercial monetization.

Shifting Focus: Launching "Hermes for Businesses"

With the fresh infusion of capital, Nous Research is preparing for its most significant strategic pivot to date. The startup plans to leverage the $90 million to fund an aggressive expansion into the enterprise sector through a new initiative dubbed “Hermes for Businesses.”

The move represents a calculated effort to translate the success of their open-source tools into a scalable, secure, and manageable product for large corporations. “Hermes for Businesses” is designed to allow organizations to deploy highly customized AI agents tailored to their specific operational needs. Crucially, the platform is being built to address the primary concerns of modern enterprise IT departments: data privacy, security, and the ability to execute complex, multi-step workflows.

As companies move past the initial phase of experimenting with basic generative AI chatbots, the demand for agents capable of taking action—rather than just providing answers—has surged. Nous Research aims to fill this void by providing a framework that allows enterprises to maintain control over their data while utilizing the power of the Hermes architecture. By enabling these agents to handle multi-step workflows, the company hopes to integrate itself into the core operational fabric of its clients, automating processes that previously required significant manual intervention.

Investors and the Open-Source Ecosystem

The inclusion of major industry players like Nvidia and Samsung in the Series B round suggests that the strategic importance of open-source AI is being recognized at the highest levels of the hardware and technology supply chain. Nvidia’s participation, in particular, highlights the symbiotic relationship between advanced compute infrastructure and the software models that drive demand for it.

The involvement of 1789 Capital adds an intriguing political and financial layer to the startup’s cap table. The firm’s participation indicates that the appeal of high-growth, high-impact AI technology transcends traditional investment boundaries, drawing interest from a diverse spectrum of venture capital sources.

For the broader open-source community, the success of Nous Research serves as a proof-of-concept that open-source models can achieve commercial viability at scale. For years, the debate in the AI industry centered on whether open-source models could compete with the proprietary “walled gardens” maintained by big-tech incumbents. By achieving a $1.5 billion valuation, Nous Research has provided a clear answer: not only can open-source models compete, but they can also serve as the foundation for massive, revenue-generating enterprise platforms.

Looking Toward the End of 2026

The remainder of 2026 is shaping up to be a defining period for the company. As they transition from a developer-focused model to an enterprise-facing powerhouse, the team at Nous Research will face the classic challenges of scaling: maintaining the quality of their models while ensuring that their enterprise-grade security and privacy protocols meet the stringent requirements of corporate procurement departments.

The $100 million revenue milestone, if reached by year-end, would be a major indicator of success for the “Hermes for Businesses” launch. As the AI market matures, the competition is expected to intensify, with traditional software giants and other well-funded startups vying for the same enterprise budgets. However, with a massive base of existing users and the validation provided by their latest funding round, Nous Research appears well-positioned to navigate this transition.

The startup’s journey from a research-led open-source project to a unicorn-valued enterprise entity mirrors the rapid evolution of the AI industry itself. As they continue to refine the Hermes architecture to support increasingly complex autonomous tasks, the company remains at the forefront of the shift toward agentic AI—systems that do not just assist, but act on behalf of the user to complete meaningful, multi-stage business objectives. For now, all eyes will be on how effectively they can convert their massive open-source footprint into long-term enterprise partnerships.