Nous Research Raises $90M at $1.5B for Enterprise Hermes Agents

The deal

Nous Research, the company behind the open source Hermes Agent, has closed a $90 million Series B at a $1.5 billion valuation 12. The announcement confirms figures that had already circulated in earlier press reports 12. Robot Ventures led the round. Nvidia, Union Square Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Samsung and 1789 Capital also participated 12. Donald Trump Jr. is a partner at 1789 Capital 12.

The raise brings total funding for the three-year-old startup to $158 million 12. Both accounts agree on every headline number: the round size, the valuation, the lead investor, the participants and the cumulative total. The difference between them is mostly one of depth. One report also covers the company's traction and where the money is going 2.

From developer favorite to enterprise vendor

The strategic news is a new product called "Hermes for Businesses." It is meant to let companies deploy customized AI agents that can carry out multi-step workflows while keeping corporate data private and secure 2. The Series B is earmarked to fund this enterprise push 2.

The pitch builds on an existing grassroots footprint. Nous says the open source Hermes Agent has been cloned more than 24 million times. By its own estimates, the agent drives roughly 2.5% of global AI token usage 2. Both figures come from the company and have not been independently verified. They should be read as a marketing claim, not an audited metric. Still, they show how Nous wants investors and customers to see it: as infrastructure that developers have already adopted at scale, not as an unproven newcomer.

The framing in the coverage differs slightly. One outlet stresses bringing Hermes agents to enterprises 1. The other leads with the product launch for business users alongside the valuation confirmation 2. Both point to the same conclusion. The round is less about building the open source project and more about turning it into revenue.

Why the cap table matters

The investor list says something about how this market is forming.

• Nvidia's involvement fits its pattern of backing companies whose growth drives demand for compute. An agent platform that claims a measurable share of global token usage is, almost by definition, a large consumer of inference.
• Samsung's participation suggests interest from a hardware and device maker. That interest may extend to agents running beyond the data center, though neither report spells out Samsung's intentions.
• Union Square Ventures and Menlo Ventures add traditional venture credibility to a round led by Robot Ventures 12.
• 1789 Capital's presence, with Donald Trump Jr. as a partner, gives the round a political dimension 12. That could matter as AI policy, procurement and open source regulation stay contested in Washington. This is speculation about possible implications. Nothing in the reporting suggests a specific policy angle to the investment.

The open source-to-enterprise playbook

Nous is following a familiar path. Build a widely used open project, earn developer goodwill, then sell a managed or customized version to companies that want reliability, support and data controls. Many infrastructure software firms have tried this, with mixed results. The tension is always the same. The free version has to stay good enough to keep the community engaged, while the paid tier has to offer enough extra value to justify a contract.

The emphasis on privacy and security in Hermes for Businesses 2 targets the main objection enterprises raise about AI agents. Agents that act across multiple systems and steps need broad access to internal data and tools. That makes governance a bigger concern than it is with a simple chatbot. Promising customization along with data protection is a reasonable opening position. The open question is how well it holds up in production.

Our read

A $1.5 billion valuation for a three-year-old company with $158 million raised 12 is a bet that open source adoption can become enterprise revenue in the agent market specifically. The clone count and token-share figures 2 give Nous a credible distribution story. Enterprise buyers, however, tend to weigh security reviews, integration support and accountability more than popularity metrics.

The round gives Nous the money to compete for those contracts. The crowded field of agent platforms will test whether a developer-first open source brand is an advantage or a distraction when selling to large organizations. For now, the backing of Nvidia and a broad investor syndicate suggests the market sees Hermes as one of the more serious open contenders in AI agents.