According to a marketing document familiar with Tech Crunch and Contracting Talks, a startup connects companies like Open Eye and Meta with the domain experts needed to train and improve their basic AI models, talking to investors for a series C round.
According to two sources, Felicis, who is a return investor, is considering doubling the company for Series C. Felisis refused to comment.
One person said the company is currently targeting the price of $ 10 billion or more. One person said it had increased by a target of $ 8 billion, which the company discussed a few months ago. However, the terms of the final agreement may still change.
The company has told potential investors that it already has several offers. According to this information, the price of the VCS company is reaching Mukurver with a price of $ 10 billion.
The Tech Crunch also believes that the company has brought at least two new investors to raise funds for a possible contract through special purpose vehicles (SPV).
The company's previous round was announced in February – Million 100 million Series B for $ 2 billion under Felicis.
One person said that it was established in 2022, with the annual run rate revenue reaching close to $ 450 million. The company told Tech Crunch in February that its annual income (by multiplying the latest month by 12) reached $ 75 million. In March, Mukher's CEO Brandon Foody posted on X that the RAR was $ 100 million.
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The company has told investors that it is on the way to accelerate the ARR milestone of more than $ 500 million from anywhere, According to a source familiar with the situation, the beginning of the AI coding assistant cursor. A year after the launch of this product, Infair targeted Million 500 million in ARR. Forbes report that unlike infer, which is still burning cash, Meruer made a millionaire 6 million in the first half of the year.
Merkor with special domain specialists earns revenue by providing AI model training to companies, such as providing scientists, doctors, and lawyers, and receives an hour -long search fee and matching rates for their work.
The company claims that Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Open AI, as well as Tesla and NVDIA, have been claimed to be provided with data labeling contractors to five top AI labs. According to sources, an external part of its income is coming from all sets of these brands, including Open.
To further diversify its business model, Merkor is telling investors that it is adding more software infrastructure to learn reinforcement – a training method where a model or agent's decisions are confirmed or conflict with, which helps add feedback and improve over time. The company eventually plans to make AI -powered recruitment market space.
Nevertheless, Merkor faces competition from companies like Surge AI, which is allegedly in talks to raise funds at a cost of $ 25 billion, as well as from other data labeling firms like Touring Labs and Scale AI, which are also expanding RL services. Some believe that the recent renting platform of Open can help AI Dev build a human experienced RL training service.
When arriving for the comments, Foody told Tech Crunch, “We're not trying to lift at all,” and, “We reject the offerings every month.” He also said that the company's ARR is more than $ 450 million. However, he made it clear that the company's income includes the total amount that consumers pay for their contractors before receiving their share. He added that this is a joint accounting practice that is recommended by audit firms and is used by rivals AI and Scale AI.
Startups were made in 2023 by Thame Fellows and Harvard Drop Brandon Fuddy (CEO), Adhish Herimath (CTO), and Surya Madha (COO). The three partners are still in the early 20s. According to Forbes, to take the company to the next level, Merkor recently appointed Cindyep Jain, a former Uber chief product officer, with decades of experience, as its first president.
Merkor recently filed a lawsuit by Scale AI for misusing trade secrets. Scale AI has alleged that one of its former employees who later joined Merkor, “stole more than 100 secret documents related to Scale's consumer strategies and other proprietary information.”
Maxwell Zeif contributed to reporting
