Nous Research confirms it hit $1.5B valuation, launches AI agents for business users

Nous Research has locked in a $90 million Series B and, with it, a $1.5 billion valuation. That confirms the earlier TechCrunch report and gives the three-year-old startup a much louder signal than a funding announcement usually does.

Robot Ventures led the round. Nvidia, Union Square Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Samsung, and 1789 Capital also joined in. The new money lifts Nous Research’s total funding to $158 million.

The company built its name around Hermes, an open-source agent that has become popular with developers and individual users. Nous says Hermes has been cloned more than 24 million times and accounts for about 2.5% of global AI token usage, based on its own estimates. That kind of traction is exactly why investors keep showing up.

Now the startup is pushing into companies with “Hermes for Businesses.” The pitch is straightforward: customized AI agents that can handle multi-step workflows while keeping data private and secure. By mid-September 2026, Nous was at roughly $36 million in annualized revenue, and The Wall Street Journal reported that it expects to cross $100 million before the end of 2026.

That is a sharp turn from community favourite to enterprise vendor, and it makes sense. Open-source products often spend years being called “promising” before someone tries to sell them to procurement. Nous is skipping the small talk.