Nous Research raises $90M to take its Hermes AI agent to businesses

Nous Research has raised $90M to build a business version of Hermes, its open-source AI agent. Nvidia, Microsoft’s M12, Samsung, Robot Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Y Combinator and Menlo Ventures are among the investors, chief executive Dillon Rolnick wrote in a note on the company’s website.

The round values Nous at $1.5bn, The Wall Street Journal reported, which first broke the news. Nous did not give a valuation.

“Somehow, $90 million is modest in modern fundraising. We at Nous have always delivered more with less,” Rolnick wrote.

From fine-tuned models to an agent

Nous formed in 2023 to push back against what it calls a trend towards centralised, walled-off AI. It started by fine-tuning Meta’s Llama models so they follow the views of each user, Rolnick wrote. It also published YaRN, a method that gives open models longer context windows at lower cost.

Nous released Hermes under the MIT licence in February. The agent remembers projects, writes reusable skills as it works and lets users choose which models it runs. It works on macOS, Windows and Linux, and through apps such as Telegram, Slack and WhatsApp, according to its website.

People have cloned Hermes more than 24 million times, Nous said. By its own internal estimates, the agent drives about 2.5% of all global token usage. The Journal reported more than 22 million downloads since February.

Hermes for Businesses

The money will go into Hermes for Businesses. Nous says it will let companies choose models by price and goal, keep their AI use private and own their company knowledge.

Personal AI agents have drawn large sums this year. Instinct raised $1bn at a $10bn valuation for an agent that rings restaurants itself. In September, Meta launched its Muse agent. Nvidia has also built an enterprise platform on the open-source OpenClaw agent.