Nous Research Valuation, Funding & Investors

Nous Research is valued at $1.5B as of July 2026.

Last Nous Research valuation

$1.5B

Series B · Jul 2026

Last Nous Research funding round

$75M

Series B · Jul 2026

Cumulative funding Nous Research raised

$145M

across 3 funding rounds

Key investors in Nous Research

  • Union Square Ventures
  • Balaji Srinivasan
  • Paradigm
  • Delphi Ventures
  • Robot Ventures
  • Distributed Global

Nous Research Overview

About Nous Research

Nous Research is a San Francisco-based AI research lab building open-source language models trained on the Solana blockchain for decentralized compute. Its models emphasize reasoning, long-context understanding, and human alignment through synthetic data generation and fine-tuning techniques. The Hermes series of models supports applications in coding, mathematics, and multilingual tasks. Nous Research coordinates global GPU contributions via blockchain incentives launched in 2023.


Founded

2023

HQ

United StatesNew York City, NY

Status

Privately held

Customer focus

B2B

Revenue model

Licensing

Valuation

$1.5B (Jul 2026)

Nous Research Valuation

Nous Research is currently valued at $1.5B, based on its Series B in July 2026.

The $75M round was led by Robot Ventures, with participation from Union Square Ventures.

Nous Research's valuation has grown 1.5x from $1B at its Series A in April 2025 to $1.5B in July 2026, across 2 priced rounds.

Nous Research valuation by funding round

Nous Research valuation by funding round
DateStageValuation
Jul 2026Series B$1.5B
Apr 2025Series A$1B

Nous Research Funding History

Nous Research has raised a total of $145M across 3 funding rounds.

Nous Research's first fundraising round was a $20M seed round in January 2024. The most recent completed round was a $75M Series B in July 2026.

Nous Research funding rounds

Nous Research funding rounds
DateStageInvestorsRaisedValuationDeal Summary
Jul 2026Series BRobot Ventures (lead); Union Square Ventures$75M$1.5BNous Research, the open-source AI lab behind the Hermes agent, is finalizing a Series B funding round of at least $75 million led by Robot Ventures with significant participation from Union Square Ventures (USV) and other investors at a $1.5 billion post-money valuation. The deal, reported on July 13, 2026, remains in talks as of mid-July with terms not yet formally finalized by the company. This single round exceeds the company's entire prior capital base of approximately $70 million raised since its 2023 founding from Paradigm, Robot Ventures, North Island Ventures, OSS Capital, and angel Balaji Srinivasan. The funding is earmarked for expanding Hermes capabilities, scaling the Psyche decentralized compute network, and enhancing developer tools and enterprise offerings. Nous Research, founded in 2023 by Jeffrey Quesnelle, Karan Malhotra, Ryan Teknium, and Shivani Mitra, operates as an independent AI lab focused on open-weights agentic models and decentralized AI infrastructure. The $1.5 billion valuation reflects investor confidence in open-source AI agent development despite the company's current revenue not yet explaining the valuation magnitude.
Apr 2025Series AParadigm (lead)$50M$1BNous Research is a decentralized artificial intelligence startup founded in 2022 by Jeffrey Quesnelle (CEO), Karan Malhotra, Teknium, and Shivani Mitra, building open-source large language models and infrastructure on the Solana blockchain. The company develops community-oriented AI models and decentralized training systems as alternatives to closed, centralized approaches used by major AI labs. On April 25, 2025, Nous Research raised $50 million in a Series A funding round led by crypto venture capital firm Paradigm at a post-money token valuation of $1 billion. Prior to this round, the company had raised approximately $20 million across seed rounds from investors including Distributed Global, North Island Ventures, and Delphi Digital. The new capital was allocated toward expanding computational capacity, advancing research in model architecture, data synthesis, fine-tuning and reasoning, and scaling infrastructure for its Psyche Network. Nous Research's flagship model, Hermes 3, built upon LLaMA and Mistral architectures, has gained traction in the AI research community and has been cited by major companies including Meta and DeepSeek. The company operates with a 20-person team and represents a significant bet by Paradigm on the intersection of decentralized blockchain technology and AI infrastructure, signaling a broader shift in crypto venture capital toward funding open-source and community-driven AI tools.
Jan 2024SeedDistributed Global (lead); OSS Capital L.P. (lead); Thibaud Zamora; North Island Ventures; Balaji Srinivasan; Alex Atallah; Chris Prucha; Sahil Chaudhary; Vipul Ved Prakash; Gavin Uberti; Delphi Ventures; YONATAN BEN SHIMON$20M-Nous Research is a decentralized AI startup founded by AI researchers, including collaborators like Diederik Kingma, focused on developing open-source AI models using blockchain for coordination and incentives to enable distributed training on spare global GPU compute, competing with centralized players like OpenAI and DeepSeek. The company leverages Solana blockchain for its Psyche network, which supports fault-tolerant distributed AI model training, as demonstrated by a successful test of a 15B parameter model in December 2024 over 11,000 steps. It emphasizes transparency, audit trails to prevent data poisoning, and rewarding compute contributors via cryptocurrency rather than donations. A subsequent Series A in April 2025 raised $50M almost entirely from Paradigm (its largest AI bet post-FTX), achieving a $1B token valuation, with funds allocated to scaling compute resources and expanding the 20-person research team. This round highlights crypto capital's interest in Web3+AI intersections. Competitively, Nous positions against centralized labs by harnessing idle compute globally, avoiding data center reliance, and integrating crypto incentives.

Who has invested in Nous Research?

15 investors have backed Nous Research across its funding rounds, including Union Square Ventures, Balaji Srinivasan, Paradigm, Delphi Ventures, Robot Ventures and Distributed Global.

Lead investors include Robot Ventures, Paradigm, Distributed Global and OSS Capital L.P..


Nous Research Investors

Investors in Nous Research by funding rounds participated
InvestorHQRoundsRoleFirst check
Thibaud Zamora--1ParticipantJan 2024
Distributed GlobalUnited StatesLos Angeles, CA1LeadJan 2024
North Island VenturesUnited StatesNew York City, NY1ParticipantJan 2024
Balaji SrinivasanSingaporeSingapore1ParticipantJan 2024
Union Square VenturesUnited StatesNew York City, NY1ParticipantJul 2026
Alex AtallahUnited StatesSan Francisco, CA1ParticipantJan 2024
Chris PruchaUnited StatesSan Francisco, CA1ParticipantJan 2024
Sahil Chaudhary--1ParticipantJan 2024
Vipul Ved PrakashUnited StatesSan Francisco, CA1ParticipantJan 2024
Gavin UbertiUnited StatesSan Francisco, CA1ParticipantJan 2024
OSS Capital L.P.United StatesSan Francisco, CA1LeadJan 2024
Delphi VenturesUnited StatesSan Francisco, CA1ParticipantJan 2024
YONATAN BEN SHIMONIsraelIsrael1ParticipantJan 2024

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Nous Research Competitors

Nous Research competitors include listed companies like PCITECH and TRS Information Technology, and private ones like Emergent, Jasper, Meshy AI and Sarvam AI.

Public and private companies comparable to Nous Research
CompanyHQStatusRevenueEBITDAValuationRevenue Multiple
EmergentUnited StatesSan Francisco, CAPrivate$120M-$1.5B12.5x
JasperUnited StatesSan Francisco, CAPrivate$75M-$1.5B20.0x
Meshy AIUnited StatesSan Jose, CAPrivate$30M-$1.5B50.0x
Sarvam AIIndiaBangalorePrivate--$1.5B-
PCITECHChinaChinaPublicly listed$1.5B$53M$1.4B0.9x
TRS Information TechnologyChinaChinaPublicly listed$76M($20M)$1.7B19.7x

Nous Research Public Comps

Nous Research is still privately-owned, but its public comps include PCITECH, Fractal Analytics, TRS Information Technology, Wenge AI, C3.ai, Appier Group, Rackspace, Rezolve AI, Beijing CTJ Info Tech and Haizhi.

Last FYEV/RevenueEV/EBITDA
RevenueEBITDALast FYLTM2027ELast FYLTM2027E
PCITECH$1.5B$53M0.8x0.9x24.1x-
Fractal Analytics$344M$50M3.7x3.4x25.8x21.0x
TRS Information Technology$76M($20M)19.3x19.7x(73.5x)478.8x
Wenge AI$60M($20M)27.6x-(82.7x)-
C3.ai$250M($484M)4.3x4.5x(2.2x)(6.2x)
Appier Group$281M$44M3.4x2.9x21.6x15.7x
Rackspace$2.7B$244M1.5x1.6x17.1x15.0x
Rezolve AI$47M($109M)23.3x4.0x(10.0x)(19.3x)

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Common questions about Nous Research

When was Nous Research founded?Nous Research was founded in 2023.
Where is Nous Research headquartered?Nous Research is headquartered in New York City, NY, United States.
Is Nous Research publicly listed?No, Nous Research is a private, VC-backed company.
What is Nous Research's valuation?Nous Research was last valued at $1.5B in its Series B in July 2026.
How much funding has Nous Research raised?Nous Research has raised $145M across 3 funding rounds.
What was Nous Research's last funding round?Nous Research's last funding round was a $75M Series B in July 2026, led by Robot Ventures.
Who are Nous Research's investors?Nous Research's investors include Thibaud Zamora, Distributed Global, North Island Ventures, Balaji Srinivasan, Union Square Ventures, Alex Atallah, Chris Prucha, Sahil Chaudhary, Vipul Ved Prakash, Gavin Uberti and 5 others.
Which companies are comparable to Nous Research?Companies comparable to Nous Research include Emergent, Jasper, Meshy AI, Sarvam AI, PCITECH and TRS Information Technology.

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