Mercor, which connects AI labs with area consultants for coaching their foundational AI fashions, has raised $350 million at a $10 billion valuation, the corporate confirmed to Trendster.
Felicis Ventures, which led the corporate’s earlier $100 million Collection B at a $2 billion valuation, can be main this spherical. Present traders Benchmark and Common Catalyst, and new investor Robinhood Ventures additionally participated.
Trendster reported in September that Mercor was in talks with traders to lift a Collection C at a valuation of $10 billion, up from its goal of $8 billion just a few months prior. The corporate on the time informed potential traders that it already had a number of affords.
Mercor began off as an AI-driven hiring platform, however shortly pivoted to offering corporations with specialised area consultants to carry out AI mannequin coaching — corresponding to scientists, docs, and attorneys — and charging an hourly finder’s charge and matching fee for his or her work.
The corporate has additionally been including extra software program infrastructure for reinforcement studying — a coaching methodology the place a mannequin’s or agent’s selections are verified or disputed, enabling it to include suggestions and enhance over time. The corporate intends to ultimately construct an AI-powered recruiting market.
Mercor’s fortunes rose after main AI labs like OpenAI and Google DeepMind reportedly reduce ties with data-labeling startup Scale AI after Meta invested $14 billion within the information vendor and employed its CEO.
The corporate apparently informed traders that it’s on monitor to hit $500 million in ARR quicker than Anysphere, the startup behind Cursor, which famously hit the milestone roughly a 12 months after launching its core product.
“Since we based Mercor nearly three years in the past, AI has superior at an astonishing tempo. But it surely nonetheless struggles with the subtleties that drive economically helpful work—balancing trade-offs, understanding intent, creating style, and deciding what must be achieved, not simply what will be achieved,” the corporate wrote in a weblog submit emailed to Trendster.
The startup says it at the moment pays greater than $1.5 million per day to its contractors. It has greater than 30,000 consultants on its roster, who it pays over $85 per hour on common.
Mercor mentioned it should concentrate on three areas: increasing its expertise community, enhancing its programs for matching its contractors with purchasers, and constructing new merchandise to automate extra of its processes.
