Nous Research raises $75M at $1.5B valuation for Hermes agents
Open-source Hermes agents hit $1.5B valuation with $75M funding round led by Robot Ventures
Nous Research, the company behind the viral open-source Hermes agent framework, is finalizing a $75 million funding round at a $1.5 billion valuation led by Robot Ventures and USV. The company was founded in 2023 by Jeffrey Quesnelle, Karan Malhotra, Ryan Teknium, and Shivani Mitra, and had previously raised $70 million from investors including Paradigm and Balaji Srinivasan. Hermes competes directly with OpenClaw by offering built-in capabilities like web search, coding, and image understanding, while also featuring automatic skill learning from user interactions.
Hermes has amassed significant traction with 214,000 GitHub stars and nearly 40,000 forks, making it one of the most popular open-source agent frameworks. Users can deploy it locally on desktops or virtual private servers, or opt for the cloud-hosted version with paid tiers ranging from $20 to $200 per month. The new funding will enable Nous Research to expand Hermes' products and refine its business model.
- Nous Research raises $75M at $1.5B valuation led by Robot Ventures and USV
- Hermes offers built-in skills (web search, coding) and automatic skill learning, with 214K GitHub stars
- Cloud-hosted version available at $20-$200/month tiers
Why It Matters
Hermes' open-source agent framework is becoming a major competitor in the autonomous AI agent space, with massive developer adoption and new funding to accelerate growth.