Sources: AI Traaining Startup Mercor Eyes 10B+ Evaluation at a rate of $ 450 million

MERCOR, a startup company linking companies such as Openai and Dead With the presence of experts in the two fields needed to train and refine their artificial intelligence models, in discussions with investors for a round of chain C, according to a marketing document showed by Techcrunch and two exporters familiar with the deal talks.

Velice, the return investor, is thinking about doubling the company C series, according to two sources. Felisis refused the comment.

One person said that the company is currently targeting $ 10 billion or more. One person said of an assessment of a $ 8 billion targeted two months ago. However, the terms of the final deal are still changing.

The company told potential investors that it already has multiple offers. VCS has been contacted with MERCOR in a proactive manner with the offers that reside the company as much as 10 billion dollarsInformation previously reported.

Techcrunch also realizes that the company has brought at least two new investors to raise funds for the potential deal through special purposes (SPVS).

The previous round of the company was announced in February – a series of $ 100 million with a value of $ 2 billion led by Felisis.

One person said in 2022, Mirror approaches $ 450 million to the annual running rate revenues. In February, the company told TECRUNCH that its annual revenue (calculated by hitting the last month by 12) has reached 12) 75 million dollars at that time. In March, the CEO of Mercor Brendan Foody posted on X that Arr was 100 million dollars.

The company told the investors that it is the right track to reach an ARR teacher of $ 500 million faster than Anysphere, The startup that makes an artificial intelligence assistant index, according to a source familiar with the situation. The famous Anysphere hit 500 million dollars In Arr around a year after the launch of its product. Unlike Anysphere, which is still a critical burning, MERCOR made a profit of $ 6 million in the first half of the year, I mentioned Forbes.

MERCOR earns revenues by providing companies with the experts of the two specialized fields to perform the model training AI – such as scientists, doctors and lawyers – and they get the researcher’s clock fees and the rate of conformity to their work.

The company claims to provide contracting contractors to five Amnesty International Laborators, including Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Openai, as well as to Tesla and Nvidia. According to the sources, a large part of its revenue comes from a sub -group of these brands, including Openai.

To further diversify its business model, MERCOR was telling investors that it added more programs to the programs to learn reinforcement – a training method where the decisions of the model or agent or dispute are verified, which enables it to integrate comments and improve over time. The company also intends to build a proxy recruitment market.

However, MERCOR faces competition from companies such as Durg AI, which was reported to be in conversations to collect financing in A. Evaluation of $ 25 billionAs well as from Turning Labs and other data mark signs companies such as Scale AI, which also expand in RL services. Some think that The recently launched employment platform from Openai You can lead the artificial intelligence giant to create a RL training service that works in the human being.

When it was reached for the comment, I tell the Foody Techcrunch, “We didn’t try to raise it at all,” and “we reject the offers every month.” He also said that the company for the company is higher than $ 450 million. However, he made it clear that the company’s revenues include the total amount that customers pay for services before the contractors get their part. He added that this is a common accounting practice recommended by audit companies and used by competitors from AI and Scale AI.

The startup company was established in 2023 by Thiel Fellows, Harvard Cropwouts Brendan Foody (CEO), Adarsh ​​Hiremath (CTO), and Syria Medha (CO). All three founders are still in the early twenties. To move the company to the next level, MERCOR recently appointed Sundeep Jain, the chief of the former Uber product, with contracts of experience, as I reported, Forbes said.

A lawsuit was recently against MERCOR by a competitor from artificial intelligence to evacuate commercial secrets. Scale AI claims that one of his former employees who later joined Mercor “stole more than 100 secret documents related to Scale and other special information strategies,” according to a copy of the previous Techcrunch suit. Review.

Maxwell Zif contributed to reporting