Nous Research announced on October 7, 2026, that it raised $90 million in Series B funding to expand its open-source AI agent Hermes for enterprise use. The funding round, led by Robot Ventures, values the company at $1.5 billion and brings its total funding to $158 million.
Hermes Agent Gains Traction Among Developers
Hermes Agent, released under the MIT license in February 2026, has been downloaded more than 24 million times. According to Nous Research, the tool accounts for approximately 2.5% of total token usage in AI models worldwide. The agent allows users to select their own AI model and execution environment, switch between models based on needs and budget, and save learned procedures as reusable skills that persist across model changes.
New Service Targets Business Clients
The company is developing ‘Hermes for Businesses’ to address enterprise concerns around data privacy and model management. This service will let companies choose AI models according to business objectives and budget while protecting confidential information and retaining institutional knowledge. Nous Research says it will maintain its open-source policy even for this enterprise offering.
Investors Back Expansion Plans
The Series B round includes investments from NVIDIA, Microsoft’s M12, Samsung, Union Square Ventures, Y Combinator, and Menlo Ventures. Nous Research plans to use the funds to build a mobile app for Hermes Agent and scale its business-focused product. The company’s annualized revenue was approximately $36 million as of mid-September 2026, with management expecting to surpass $100 million by the end of 2026.
Founder’s Vision Drives Mission
Nous Research CEO Dillon Rollnick founded the company in 2023 to counter the concentration of AI technology in large corporations. He stated that the principle of letting users manage their own AI systems remains central to the company’s mission, reinforcing its commitment to open-source principles as it grows into the enterprise market.
Technical Capabilities of Hermes Agent
Hermes Agent enables users to perform web searches, summarize content, and read and write files directly through its interface. The agent includes a mechanism to save procedures learned during task execution as reusable ‘skills’ that persist across different AI models. This functionality allows users to switch between local and cloud-based AI models while retaining accumulated knowledge and workflows.
According to Nous Research documentation, Hermes Agent supports running code, handling scheduled tasks, and maintaining memory across sessions. Users can operate the agent independently or opt for hosted plans priced between $20 and $200 per month. The system is designed to work without dependency on a specific AI model, preserving user workflows even when changing underlying models.
Hermes Agent’s Technical Architecture
Hermes Agent is designed to operate independently of any specific AI model, allowing users to switch between local and cloud-based models while preserving their workflows. The system supports running code, handling scheduled tasks, and maintaining memory across sessions, enabling continuous learning and task automation.
Users can perform web searches, summarize content, and read and write files directly through the agent’s interface. Learned procedures are saved as reusable ‘skills’ that persist across model changes, ensuring accumulated knowledge is retained when switching between different AI environments.
The agent offers flexible deployment options, including self-hosted use or hosted plans priced between $20 and $200 per month. This architecture supports Nous Research’s goal of providing model-agnostic AI tools that empower users to manage their own AI systems without vendor lock-in.
Sources
- The open-source AI agent 'Hermes Agent' has become so popular that it has been downloaded more than 24 million times, leading its developer, Nous Research, to raise approximately 14.2 billion yen to expand its business to enterprise clients.
- Nous Research raises $90M at a reported $1.5B valuation to take its open-source agent to business — TFN
Photo: Max Kovalenko (CC BY-SA 4.0)
