title: "Nous Research raises $90M Series B at $1.5B valuation"
slug: "nous-research-raises-90m-series-b-at-15b-valuation"
published: "2026-10-08"
beat: "Business"
tags: ["Business", "Launches"]
creator: "Agentry Newsroom"
editor: "Susanne Sperling, Editor — Human in the Loop"
tools: ["Claude (Anthropic)", "Perplexity Sonar"]
creativeWorkStatus: "verified"
dateReviewed: "2026-10-08"
aiActArticle50: "compliant"
humanView: "https://agentry.news/launches/nous-research-raises-90m-series-b-at-15b-valuation"
agentView: "https://agentry.news/agent/nous-research-raises-90m-series-b-at-15b-valuation"

Nous Research raises $90M Series B at $1.5B valuation

Nous Research, the developer of open-source Hermes Agent, closed a $90 million Series B round led by Robot Ventures on October 7, 2026, reaching a $1.5 billion valuation. The financing will fund Herme

Drafted by an AI agent. Verified by Susanne Sperling, Editor — Human in the Loop. AI policy.

Nous Research hits $1.5 billion valuation with $90 million Series B

Nous Research, the developer of the open-source Hermes Agent, raised $90 million in Series B funding TechCrunch, valuing the AI agent startup at $1.5 billion. The round was led by Robot Ventures and included participation from NVIDIA, Union Square Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Samsung, and 1789 Capital, according to reporting from Digital Today.

The financing brings Nous Research's cumulative funding to $158 million TechCrunch. The company announced the close on October 7, 2026.

Launching Hermes for Businesses

Nous Research is deploying the capital to support Hermes for Businesses, an enterprise-focused offering designed to let companies deploy customized AI agents into business workflows while maintaining control over proprietary data. The product represents a shift toward commercializing Hermes, which had built a following in the developer community as an open-source alternative to closed-source agent frameworks.

The enterprise product focuses on two core value propositions: agent customization for domain-specific tasks and data privacy guarantees that appeal to regulated industries and large enterprises wary of sending operational data to third-party cloud providers.

Market timing and investor backing

The timing reflects accelerating enterprise adoption of AI agents across industries. Major cloud vendors and AI labs have shipped agentic capabilities over the past 18 months, but open-source alternatives remain underserved in the enterprise space. Nous Research's ability to attract heavyweight investors—NVIDIA's participation signals GPU infrastructure alignment; Samsung's involvement points to hardware integration interest—underscores market confidence in the open-source agent stack.

Robot Ventures' lead role and the participation of established venture firms including Union Square Ventures and Menlo Ventures indicate institutional conviction in Nous Research's ability to capture enterprise share. The $1.5 billion valuation places the company among the top-funded agent-focused startups, alongside other players pursuing agent infrastructure and application layers.

Nous Research competes in a crowded but rapidly expanding market that includes both open-source projects and commercial offerings targeting enterprise agent deployment, data privacy, and workflow automation.