Key Takeaways
- Mercor said on November 10, 2026, that it raised $750 million in a Series D round at a $20 billion valuation.
- Mercor's valuation roughly doubled from about $10 billion in October 2025 to $20 billion in November 2026.
- Mercor's $750 million Series D is about 2.1 times the size of its $350 million round in October 2025.
- Mercor said the money would accelerate its evaluation and post-training business for companies in any industry.
Mercor, an AI data company backed by Benchmark, Felicis, General Catalyst, Menlo Ventures, NVIDIA and Salesforce, said on November 10, 2026, that it raised $750 million in a Series D round at a $20 billion valuation. Yahoo Finance carried the company's release.
Reuters, carried by The Star, reported that Mercor was valued at about $10 billion after raising $350 million in October 2025. The new $20 billion valuation is therefore about twice that figure. The company's release did not mention the earlier round.
Mercor valuation history from October 2025 to November 2026
A Series D is a later-stage funding round, and a valuation is the price investors place on the whole company. The comparison rests on two rounds. In October 2025, Mercor raised $350 million and was valued at about $10 billion. On November 10, 2026, Mercor said it had raised $750 million at a $20 billion valuation, according to the release and The Star. Dividing the new valuation by the old one gives 2.0. Dividing the new round by the old round gives 2.1.
The doubling is approximate. Reuters said the October 2025 valuation was about $10 billion, so the 2.0 ratio is a rounded result. Both ratios are rounded to one decimal place.
Mercor Series D: how the $750 million will accelerate evaluation and post-training
Mercor's release said the funding would accelerate its evaluation, or evals, and post-training business. Evals are tests that measure how well an AI system completes tasks. Post-training is the work of adjusting a model after its initial training. The company said this gave companies in any industry a way to measure and set standards for how reliably AI agents complete tasks and at what cost.
"Every job in the economy will need its own AI agents, and every company will need a way to train and evaluate them on its own work," said Brendan Foody, co-founder and co-CEO of Mercor. Foody added: "We spent the last two years building that infrastructure with the frontier labs." Frontier labs are the companies building the most advanced AI models.
Adarsh Hiremath, co-founder and co-CEO, said: "Every company deploying AI needs to know whether it works, and the answer is different for each one." He added that Mercor builds custom benchmarks with each enterprise, and that benchmark becomes the starting point for post-training. A benchmark is a standard test used to score an AI model.
The release said Mercor's network included more than five million experts. That network helps frontier AI labs, big tech, AI startups and Fortune 500 companies evaluate and post-train models on real professional work.
Mercor valuation in the AI startup funding market
Reuters cited Crunchbase showing that AI-driven startups raised $102 billion, or 64% of global venture capital, in the third quarter of 2026. That figure covers the whole category and only the third quarter of 2026. Mercor's round was announced on November 10, after that quarter. The Crunchbase total and Mercor's valuation measure different things.
Reuters also reported that Mercor was backed by Jack Dorsey and venture capitalist Peter Thiel. The release did not name a lead investor for the Series D and did not give Mercor's revenue. Those omissions limit what these two sources can show about how the $20 billion valuation was set.
The two sources support two plain points. Mercor's valuation roughly doubled between its October 2025 round and its November 2026 round. The November round also raised more than twice the amount of the October 2025 round.
People Also Ask
What is Mercor's company?
Mercor is an AI data company that builds AI systems from human expertise. Its network of more than five million experts helps frontier AI labs, big tech, AI startups and Fortune 500 companies evaluate and post-train models (adjust them after their initial training). Mercor was founded in 2023 and is headquartered in San Francisco.
Who are the founders of Mercor?
Brendan Foody and Adarsh Hiremath are co-founders and co-CEOs of Mercor, according to the company's November 10, 2026 release. Reuters also identified Brendan Foody as co-CEO in its report on the $750 million Series D.
Who are Mercor's clients?
According to the November 10, 2026 release, Mercor's network helps frontier AI labs, big tech, AI startups and Fortune 500 companies evaluate and post-train models (adjust them after their initial training). The release did not name any individual customer.
Sources: Yahoo Finance, The Star.