What is Mercor?
AI recruiting and expert-work marketplace for model training
- Category
- AI labor marketplace
- Headquarters
- San Francisco, California
- Founded
- 2023
- Employees
- About 300 employees reported plus tens of thousands of contractors
- Total funding
- About $473M+ reported
- Valuation or Status
- $10B valuation after 2025 Series C
What is Mercor?
Mercor is ai recruiting and expert-work marketplace for model training.
Mercor is ai recruiting and expert-work marketplace for model training, operating in ai labor marketplace. Mercor matches domain experts with AI labs and enterprises for recruiting, interviews, and human expertise used in model training and evaluation. Its CEO said the company pays more than $1.5M per day to more than 30,000 contractors, and Business Insider reported heavy AI use internally.
As of June 2026, the company is best understood as a private growth company with About 300 employees reported plus tens of thousands of contractors, About $473M+ reported, and $10B valuation after 2025 Series C. For sellers, the useful signal is where the company is concentrating spend: product velocity, compliance, data, infrastructure, customer success, and go-to-market systems that support its next stage.
What does Mercor offer?
Mercor offers AI interviews, Expert marketplace, Model-training projects, Contractor management, and related products for its market.
- AI interviews· Recruiting
- Expert marketplace· Labor
- Model-training projects· AI data
- Contractor management· Operations
- Matching algorithms· Platform
- Enterprise project delivery· Services
How does Mercor make money?
Mercor makes money by sourcing, screening, and managing expert labor for AI companies and other customers.
Mercor makes money by sourcing, screening, and managing expert labor for AI companies and other customers. Growth is driven by customer demand for high-quality human data, contractor liquidity, automated interviewing, fraud controls, and the ability to deliver specialized expertise quickly. Mercor's customer pricing is enterprise and project-based; economics are driven by expert rates, recruiting fees, project management, screening, and AI-assisted workflow volume.
Because Mercor is private, public revenue and margin disclosure is limited unless noted in recent reporting. The practical budget signal is the company's current operating motion: hiring, new product launches, customer expansion, and financing that funds engineering, security, data, compliance, and sales capacity.
Who leads Mercor?
Mercor's leadership centers on Brendan Foody and Adarsh Hiremath.
- Brendan FoodyCo-founder and CEOCo-founder since 2023Thiel Fellow and public spokesperson for Mercor's AI-work marketplace.
- Adarsh HiremathCo-founderCo-founder since 2023Co-founder involved in product and operations.
- Surya MidhaCo-founderCo-founder since 2023Co-founder involved in the company's early buildout.
- Mercor operations leadershipMarketplace operationsCurrent functionManages contractor network, customer delivery, and quality controls.
How do you contact Mercor's leadership?
Mercor does not publish personal executive emails; use company sales, support, and candidate channels.
Personal executive email format not verified; use mercor.com contact flows- Brendan FoodyCo-founder and CEOPersonal executive email format not verified; use mercor.com contact flows
- Mercor operations leadershipMarketplace operationsPersonal executive email format not verified; use mercor.com contact flows
How much funding has Mercor raised?
Mercor has About $473M+ reported; latest valuation/status: $10B valuation after 2025 Series C.
Mercor has About $473M+ reported; latest valuation/status: $10B valuation after 2025 Series C. 2023: Seed / early financing. Mercor launched and raised early capital from technology investors. 2024: Series A — reported around $30M at $250M valuation. Benchmark led a major early round according to later reporting. February 2025: Series B — $100M at $2B valuation. Felicis led the round with participation from major venture investors. October 2025: Series C — $350M at $10B valuation. Felicis led with Benchmark, General Catalyst, and Robinhood Ventures participating.
Where a round amount or valuation has not been publicly disclosed, this profile says so rather than filling the gap. The seller signal is whether the latest financing created budget for hiring, infrastructure, compliance, enterprise sales, or geographic expansion.
How did Mercor get here?
Mercor's milestones show its path from founding to its current ai labor marketplace position.
- 2023Mercor foundedThree young founders launched an AI recruiting and labor marketplace.
- 2024Benchmark-led Series AMercor scaled beyond recruiting into AI expert-work projects.
- February 2025Series B at $2BThe company raised $100M as AI labs increased demand for expert human data.
- October 2025Series C at $10BMercor announced a $350M round and a fivefold valuation jump.
- 2025-2026Large contractor payoutsThe CEO described paying more than $1.5M daily to human contractors.
- 2026AI-heavy internal operationsMercor discussed using AI agents across internal workflows.
Who are Mercor's competitors?
Mercor competes with category specialists and broader platforms serving the same buyer or user workflow.
- Scale AILarge AI data platform serving labs and enterprises.
- Surge AIPremium data-labeling and RLHF competitor.
- TuringAI talent and data platform for engineering and model work.
- OutlierExpert AI training marketplace owned by Scale AI.
- HandshakeEarly-career talent network with recruiting-marketplace overlap.
Mercor — frequently asked questions
