Mercor

Marketplace matching AI labs with pre-vetted domain experts for RLHF, data labeling, and model training

AI 📍 San Francisco, CA Founded 2023

Current Valuation

$10B

as of 2025-Q4

DECACORN

Mercor is a marketplace that connects frontier AI labs including OpenAI and Meta with pre-vetted domain experts for reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF), data labeling, and foundation-model training. Founded by Thiel Fellows Brendan Foody, Adarsh Hiremath, and Surya Midha, the company quintupled its valuation in eight months, closing a $350M Series C led by Felicis at a $10B valuation in October 2025 with Benchmark, General Catalyst, and Robinhood Ventures participating. Mercor reached an ~$450M ARR run-rate by September 2025 and is reported by Sacra to have hit $1B revenue in 2026.

Company Profile

CEO

Brendan Foody

Founded

2023

San Francisco, CA

Est. Revenue

$1.0B (2026)

Growth

+897% YoY revenue growth; ARR reached ~$450M run-rate in Sept 2025 and $1B by 2026

Last Round

Series C — $350M (Oct 2025) · Lead: Felicis

IPO Status

private

Founders & Key People

Brendan FoodyAdarsh HiremathSurya Midha

Investors

Felicis · Benchmark · General Catalyst · Robinhood Ventures · Thrive Capital · Peter Thiel (via Thiel Fellowship)

Products

Mercor expert marketplace (RLHF + domain-expert hiring for AI labs)
Mercor concierge sourcing for OpenAI, Meta, and other frontier labs
Pre-vetted contractor network for data labeling and model evaluation

Competitors

Scale AI · Surge AI · Snorkel AI · Toloka · Invisible Technologies · Turing

AIData LabelingGig MarketplaceRLHFThiel FellowsAI Training