# Nous Research Confirms $1.5B Valuation and Opens Its Hermes Agent to Businesses

The open source Hermes Agent maker closed a $90 million Series B led by Robot Ventures and is now selling customized private AI agents to companies, with reported annualized revenue near $36 million in mid-September 2026.

Canonical URL: https://freelancenews.online/news/nous-research-confirms-1-5b-valuation-and-opens-its-hermes-agent-to-f79fc198
Published: 2026-10-08T00:18:09.100Z
Updated: 2026-10-08T00:18:09.100Z
Source published: 2026-10-07T20:48:45.000Z
Event date: Not established
Review status: source-reviewed
Review method: Automated comparison against retrieved source text; not independent fact-checking.

## Report

Nous Research has confirmed a $90 million Series B round at a $1.5 billion valuation, and the same announcement carries a second, more consequential item for anyone who builds with its software: the company is moving into the enterprise sector with a product called "Hermes for Businesses." TechCrunch reported that Robot Ventures led the round, with Nvidia, Union Square Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Samsung and 1789 Capital among the participants. The report describes 1789 Capital as a firm where Donald Trump Jr. is a partner.

The financing brings the three-year-old startup's total raised to $158 million, according to the same report. That figure matters less as a scoreboard entry than as an indicator of runway: a company with this much capital behind it can fund a commercial motion for years without needing near-term revenue from the developers who use its free software.

Figures for adoption appearing in the report come from the company itself as estimates rather than independent measurement. More than 24 million clones of its open source Hermes Agent are claimed by Nous, which also states the tool accounts for about 2.5% of worldwide AI token usage. Developers and individuals are described in the report as the tool's popular user base. Neither figure came with any methodology, and downloads or copies, rather than active users, paying customers or production deployments, are what clone counts specifically capture.

What actually changes is the enterprise offering. A push by Nous Research into the enterprise sector, funded by the capital, is described in the report through "Hermes for Businesses," under which companies can deploy customized AI agents able to handle multi-step workflows while their data stays private and secure. An open source agent framework packaged for organizational buyers, with privacy and customization presented as the selling points, is the substance of the announcement.

Early but moving is how the commercial picture looks. By mid-September 2026, roughly $36 million in annualized revenue had been reached by Nous, according to The Wall Street Journal, and passing $100 million before the end of 2026 is what the company expects. A reported figure is the first number; a company expectation rather than an audited result is the second. How much revenue derives from enterprise contracts versus other sources is not broken down by the evidence, so from what is documented here the relationship between the new product and the revenue trajectory cannot be established.

For freelancers, designers and developers, the immediate question is not the valuation but what an enterprise-focused Hermes means for the open source version they may already depend on. The evidence does not say whether the open source project will continue to receive the same level of investment, whether licensing terms will change, or whether enterprise features will be gated behind paid tiers. Those are the details that would determine whether this is a neutral event or a meaningful shift for the community that produced the adoption numbers Nous is citing.

There is a practical read on the buyer side as well. Companies that want multi-step agent workflows with private data handling have had a limited set of options, most of them tied to large cloud vendors. A vendor explicitly selling data privacy and customization is a plausible alternative for regulated or privacy-sensitive clients. But the evidence contains no pricing, no deployment models, no supported integrations and no independent security review, so that alternative remains a positioning claim rather than a verified capability.

The investor list is worth noting for freelancers who track where AI tooling money is going. Nvidia and Samsung appearing alongside Union Square Ventures and Menlo Ventures suggests both strategic and traditional venture interest in the agent tooling layer. The presence of 1789 Capital is a factual detail of the cap table; the evidence does not indicate any role that firm plays beyond participation, and it should not be read as a signal about the product.

Anyone citing the adoption figures in a pitch or a client conversation should attribute them to Nous Research rather than treat them as measured market data. The same applies to the revenue numbers, which come from press reporting rather than audited financials. The distinction matters because the clone count and token-share estimate are the kind of figures that get repeated without their source, and repeating them as independent facts would misrepresent what is actually known.

Timing is another open question. The report confirms the valuation and the enterprise launch, but the evidence does not specify a general availability date for Hermes for Businesses, which regions it will serve, or whether there is a waitlist. Freelancers who want to build client work on top of it cannot yet plan around a firm release schedule from what is documented here.

The revenue trajectory, if it holds, would put Nous in an unusual position for an open source-first company: a large free user base feeding a paid enterprise motion. That model has worked for infrastructure companies before, but it depends on converting enough of the free base into organizational buyers. The evidence does not show conversion rates or customer counts, so the strength of that funnel is unknown.

For this audience, the most defensible takeaway is to watch the licensing and roadmap of the open source Hermes Agent rather than the valuation headline. If enterprise features stay additive and the open source core keeps its terms, independent developers keep their tool. If the roadmap shifts toward paid tiers, the calculus for client projects changes, and that is the thing worth monitoring.

What remains unknown is substantial: pricing, availability, the fate of the open source project's funding, the accuracy of the adoption estimates, and whether the $100 million revenue target is met. The evidence supports the financing, the investor list, the enterprise product name and the reported revenue figures. It does not support conclusions about product quality, security, or how the enterprise push will affect existing users.

## Key points

- Nous Research raised a $90 million Series B at a $1.5 billion valuation, led by Robot Ventures with Nvidia, Union Square Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Samsung and 1789 Capital participating.
- Total funding for the three-year-old startup now stands at $158 million, per the report.
- The company says its open source Hermes Agent has been cloned over 24 million times and accounts for roughly 2.5% of global AI token usage, based on its own estimates.
- The new capital funds "Hermes for Businesses," which lets companies deploy customized agents for multi-step workflows with private data handling.
- The Wall Street Journal reported Nous was at about $36 million in annualized revenue by mid-September 2026 and expects to exceed $100 million by year-end.

## Practical implications — editorial interpretation

Freelancers and small studios building on the open source Hermes Agent should treat this as a signal to watch licensing and roadmap decisions rather than a reason to change tools today. If enterprise features remain additive, the free core stays viable for client work; if the roadmap tilts toward paid tiers, developers may need to reassess dependencies in active projects.

## Limitations and unknowns

The evidence does not include pricing, availability dates, deployment models, integrations, customer counts, conversion rates or any independent security review. The clone count, token-share estimate and revenue figures are company or press reports rather than audited data, and no methodology was supplied for the adoption numbers. The report does not state whether the open source project's funding or licensing will change.

## Sources

- [1] techcrunch.com: Nous Research confirms it hit $1.5B valuation, launches AI agents for business users
  https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/07/nous-research-confirms-it-hit-1-5b-valuation-launches-ai-agents-for-business-users/
  Retrieved: 2026-10-08T00:17:40.057Z

## Claim references

- Nous Research raised a $90 million Series B at a $1.5 billion valuation led by Robot Ventures, with Nvidia, Union Square Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Samsung and 1789 Capital participating. [source 1]
- The round brought the three-year-old startup's total funding to $158 million. [source 1]
- The company says the open source Hermes Agent has been cloned more than 24 million times and drives roughly 2.5% of global AI token usage, by its own estimates. [source 1]
- The capital will fund "Hermes for Businesses," letting companies deploy customized AI agents for multi-step workflows while keeping data private and secure. [source 1]
- The Wall Street Journal reported Nous was at roughly $36 million in annualized revenue by mid-September 2026 and expects to pass $100 million before the end of 2026. [source 1]