Nous Research, the startup behind the open-source Hermes agent, is closing a new funding round that values the company at $1.5 billion, according to TechCrunch AI. The report, citing three sources familiar with the deal, says the round is led by Robot Ventures with significant participation from USV and other well-known investors. Nous is raising at least $75 million and drew heavy investor interest, TechCrunch AI reports. The company declined to comment, and neither USV nor Robot Ventures responded to requests for comment.
This is a fast climb. Founded in 2023 by Jeffrey Quesnelle, Karan Malhotra, Ryan Teknium, and Shivani Mitra, Nous had raised a total of $70 million before this round, from backers including Paradigm, Robot Ventures, North Island Ventures, OSS Capital, and Balaji Srinivasan, according to Crunchbase data cited by TechCrunch AI. A single new round now rivals everything the company had raised to date.
What Hermes Actually Is
Hermes is a local AI agent. It runs on your PC and carries out tasks on your behalf. Nous shipped it weeks after OpenClaw’s agent went viral, positioning Hermes as a direct competitor.
The difference is in what Hermes brings out of the box:
- Built-in “skills” like web search, coding, and image understanding, rather than bolt-on add-ons.
- Automatic learning from how people use it, building new skills without manual setup.
- Companion language models focused on coding and math.
Like OpenClaw, you can automate tasks with Hermes and talk to it, or get messages from it, inside apps like Telegram and Discord. That matters because these remote, always-on agents have caught on quickly. People want an assistant that works around the clock without babysitting.
Why the Valuation Makes Sense
What stands out here is the adoption behind the number. Hermes has roughly 214,000 stars and nearly 40,000 forks on GitHub, according to TechCrunch AI. Those are serious figures for an open-source project, and they signal real developer pull, not just hype.
Nous is also running a two-track model:
- Self-hosted: Developers run Hermes on a desktop or a virtual private server for free.
- Cloud-hosted: A managed version with paid tiers from $20 to $200 a month, aimed at people who would rather skip the setup.
That combination is the classic open-source business play. Give the core away, win the developers, then charge the users who want convenience and support. Investors tend to pay up for that pattern when the free tier already has a crowd. Hermes clearly does.
Why It Matters for the Industry
Local, open-source agents are becoming a real category, and the money is following. OpenClaw proved there’s appetite for an agent that lives on your machine and acts for you. Nous answered with a version that ships more capability by default and learns as it goes. Now the capital markets are validating both.
For practitioners, a few things worth watching:
- Open-source agents are getting funded like products, not side projects. A $1.5 billion valuation on an open-source agent tells you where investor conviction sits right now.
- The moat is skills and self-improvement. Hermes leaning into built-in skills and automatic learning hints at where the competition heads next. Expect rivals to match it.
- Distribution runs through chat apps. Telegram and Discord integration isn’t a gimmick. It’s how these agents reach users where they already are.
There’s context here for anyone comparing the open path to the closed one. The big labs sell hosted, proprietary assistants. Nous is betting that a widely adopted open-source agent, plus an optional paid cloud tier, can build a durable business alongside them. This round suggests investors are willing to fund that bet at scale.
What Comes Next
Sources tell TechCrunch AI the new money will go toward expanding Hermes’ products and its business model. Read that as more skills, a stronger hosted offering, and a push to turn those GitHub stars into paying accounts.
The round isn’t finalized yet, so terms could shift before it closes. But the direction is clear. Open-source AI agents just got another major vote of confidence, and Nous Research is now one of the names to watch in the space. For the full details, see the original report at TechCrunch AI.