Mercor

Last updated
Mercor
Founded2023;2 years ago (2023)
FoundersBrendan Foody, Adarsh Hiremath, Surya Midha
Headquarters
San Francisco, California
,
United States
Key people
Brendan Foody (CEO), Sundeep Jain (president), Adarsh Hiremath (CTO), Surya Midha (board chairman)
Website mercor.com

Mercor is an American artificial intelligence (AI) hiring startup that provides experts to train AI models and chatbots. The company's three founders became the youngest self-made billionaires in 2025. The company is headquartered in San Francisco. [1]

Contents

History

Mercor was founded in 2023 by Brendan Foody, Adarsh Hiremath, and Surya Midha, three Bay Area high school friends who competed together on their debate team. [1] The three dropped out of college to focus on Mercor, and were later awarded Thiel Fellowships. [2] [3] The company was originally formed to connect freelance programmers in India with companies in the United States, and they developed an AI platform to interview programmers and match them with hiring companies. [1] Foody is the CEO, Hiremath CTO, and Midha board chairman. [1] The company shifted focus to data labeling, matching expert contractors with AI companies like OpenAI looking for help to train their algorithms. [1] [4] All three founders appeared on the Forbes 30 under 30 list for 2025. [2] [5]

In May 2025, the company hired Uber's former chief product officer Sundeep Jain as its first president. [6]

In October 2025, Bloomberg named Mercor in its list of 24 AI Startups to Watch in 2026, in the Foundation Builders category. [4] Later that month, the company raised a $350 million Series C at a $10 billion valuation, making the three then 22-year old founders the youngest self-made billionaires. [1] [7]

Business

Mercor recruits experts including engineers, lawyers, doctors, bankers and journalists to train AI models and chatbots. [6] Its customers include OpenAI and Anthropic. [6] As of October 2025, the company managed 30,000 contractors. [8]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Nieva, Richard (October 31, 2025). "These 22-Year-Olds Are Now The World's Youngest Self-Made Billionaires". Forbes . New York. Archived from the original on November 3, 2025.
  2. 1 2 Arshad, Muskaan (August 16, 2025). "These Gen Z and millennial founders dropped out of college, took $200,000 from Peter Thiel, and have now built companies worth over $100 billion". Fortune . Archived from the original on August 31, 2025.
  3. ↑ "Mercor - Mercor". Forbes . New York. Archived from the original on September 12, 2025.
  4. 1 2 Metz, Rachel; Bass, Dina; Ghaffary, Shirin (October 28, 2025). "24 AI Startups to Watch in 2026". Bloomberg . Archived from the original on November 4, 2025.
  5. ↑ "Forbes 30 Under 30 2025: AI". Forbes . Archived from the original on May 21, 2025. Retrieved November 4, 2025.
  6. 1 2 3 Au-Yeung, Angel (October 27, 2025). "Exclusive | The AI Startup Fueling ChatGPT's Expertise Is Now Valued at $10 Billion". The Wall Street Journal . Archived from the original on October 27, 2025.
  7. ↑ Iyer, Ram (October 27, 2025). "Mercor quintuples valuation to $10B with $350M Series C". Techcrunch . Archived from the original on November 4, 2025.
  8. ↑ Yip, Jaures (October 27, 2025). "AI startup Mercor now valued at $10 billion with new $350 million funding round". CNBC . Archived from the original on October 31, 2025.
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