Thirty-six million dollars in annualized revenue by mid-September, with a target of $100 million before year-end. That’s not the trajectory of a research project. That’s a company with real commercial momentum, and Nous Research is now betting $90 million that it can turn developer love into enterprise contracts.
As TechCrunch reported, Nous Research has confirmed a $90 million Series B at a $1.5 billion valuation. Robot Ventures led the round, with Nvidia, Union Square Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Samsung, and 1789 Capital all participating. Total funding now sits at $158 million for a company that is only three years old.
The foundation here is Hermes, Nous Research’s open-source agent that has been cloned more than 24 million times and accounts for roughly 2.5% of global AI token usage by the company’s own estimates. Those are numbers that most AI startups would quietly exaggerate in a pitch deck. Nous Research is putting them in a press release, which suggests they’re confident enough to let them stand up to scrutiny.
But developer traction and enterprise revenue are two different animals. The company’s answer to that gap is “Hermes for Businesses,” a product that lets companies deploy customized AI agents capable of handling multi-step workflows while keeping data private. It’s a direct play into the same territory that Salesforce Agentforce, Microsoft Copilot Studio, and a growing list of vertical-specific agent platforms are already fighting over.
The competitive angle here matters. Most enterprise agent platforms are closed, proprietary, and priced accordingly. Nous Research’s pitch is that you get the open-source credibility and developer familiarity of Hermes, combined with enterprise controls and customization. That’s a position that’s hard to own, but genuinely differentiated if they can execute it. Companies like Mistral AI have tried to walk the same line between open-source community goodwill and commercial enterprise products, with mixed results so far.
The investor list also says something about where this is headed. Nvidia’s participation signals infrastructure alignment. Union Square Ventures and Menlo Ventures bring traditional enterprise SaaS experience. Samsung points to potential hardware or on-device deployment angles down the road.
The real question for Nous Research isn’t whether Hermes is popular. It clearly is. The question is whether the team can build the sales motion, support infrastructure, and security certifications that enterprise buyers actually require before they’ll write checks. That’s where most developer-first AI companies hit a wall, and $90 million gives Nous Research a real shot at clearing it.
