Open-source AI startup Nous Research is reportedly preparing a new funding round that could value the company at $1.5 billion. The round is said to be led by Robot Ventures, with strong participation from USV and other investors, while the company aims to raise at least $75 million.
Founded in 2023 by Jeffrey Quesnelle, Karan Malhotra, Ryan Teknium and Shivani Mitra, Nous Research has quickly built a reputation around its Hermes agent and related AI tools. The company had previously raised $70 million, and this new round would follow closely after its recent Series A.
What Hermes brings to the table
Hermes is designed as a practical AI agent that can help users automate tasks, communicate through apps such as Telegram and Discord, and operate continuously in the background. It includes built-in skills for web search, coding and image understanding, and is built to improve through usage over time.
Beyond Hermes, the company also supports a decentralized network for hardware contribution and training, while releasing language models focused on coding and mathematics. Its open-source approach has helped the project attract a large developer community, with strong adoption on GitHub.
Nous Research also offers a hosted version of Hermes through paid plans, giving users a simpler way to access the agent without local setup. If completed, the new funding could accelerate product expansion and strengthen the company's position in the fast-moving AI agent market. The next phase may help shape how intelligent assistants become more accessible, adaptive and widely used in everyday digital life.
