AI news · October 9, 2026
Nous Research raises $90M at $1.5B and moves Hermes toward business agents
Nous raised $90M at a $1.5B valuation while Hermes passed 24M clones by the company's estimate, so builders can test the open agent before deciding if its business service matters.
- Series B
- $90M
- valuation
- $1.5B
- reported clones
- 24M+
Nous Research confirmed a $90 million Series B at a $1.5 billion valuation on Oct7. TechCrunch reports total funding is now $158 million, with Robot Ventures leading and Nvidia, USV, Menlo Ventures, Samsung, and 1789 Capital participating. The round will fund Hermes for Businesses, a service for customized multi-step agents.
The open-source Hermes Agent has been cloned more than 24 million times and is estimated by the startup to account for about 2.5% of global AI token use. Its public repo says it can run on Windows, Linux, macOS, WSL2, or a small VPS, use different model providers, and create skills from work. Those clone and token figures are startup estimates; the stronger proof is that the code is available and the business product is being built around it.
What you can do with it
Try Hermes from its official site or GitHub repo. Use the free MIT-licensed agent with a disposable workspace, connect one model provider, and give it one repeat task such as a weekly report. Keep messaging and scheduled actions off until you understand its tools.
Our take
The funding is less interesting than the distribution signal. A widely cloned open agent can become a serious product base if it keeps the setup simple. The catch is that a self-improving agent creates more operating work than a chat app, so repeatable value must show up before the valuation matters to a maker.
Links Try it GitHub Funding report
Source: TechCrunch ↗ — Made With Models writes the brief; the reporting is theirs.