Decentralized AI Project Nous Research Nears $75 Million Funding Round at $1.5 Billion Valuation

Open-source AI agent project Nous Research is nearing a new funding round that would raise at least $75 million and value the company at $1.5 billion, according to reports.

The company is in the final stages of closing the round, led by Robot Ventures, crypto-focused media outlet The Block reported on July 14. Union Square Ventures is also participating, and investor interest was strong, TechCrunch reported, citing multiple people familiar with the matter.

The valuation is 50% above the $1 billion level from Nous Research's $50 million Series A round led by Paradigm about a year ago. Before the current round, the company had raised about $70 million in total from investors including Paradigm, Robot Ventures, North Island Ventures, OSS Capital and Balaji Srinivasan.

Nous Research was co-founded in 2023 by Jeffrey Quesnelle, Karan Malhotra, Ryan Tehcnym and Shivani Mitra. Its flagship AI agent, Hermes, includes web search, coding and image-understanding capabilities. It is designed to learn user behavior and add new functions on its own. The project has gained traction quickly in the developer community, with about 214,000 stars and nearly 40,000 forks on GitHub.

Hermes can run directly on desktops and virtual private servers, or be used through a cloud-hosted version priced at $20 to $200 a month. It can also connect to messaging apps including Telegram and Discord, allowing users to assign tasks to the agent remotely. The funds from the round are set to be used to expand Hermes and further develop its business model.