Mercor’s 22-Year-Old Founders Become Youngest Self-Made Billionaires After $10 Billion Valuation

Overview

• Mercor raised $350 million in new funding led by Felicis Ventures, with participation reported from General Catalyst, Benchmark and Robinhood Ventures, pushing the startup’s valuation to $10 billion.
• Co-founders Brendan Foody (CEO), Adarsh Hiremath (CTO) and Surya Midha (board chairman) are each reported to hold roughly 22% stakes, making the trio billionaires at age 22.
• The company positions itself as an AI recruitment and human-in-the-loop data-labeling platform used by leading AI labs for model training.
• Mercor began in 2023 as a marketplace connecting Indian engineers with U.S. firms before pivoting to AI services and now reportedly coordinates a global network of over 30,000 contractors, with substantial daily payouts cited by Business Insider.
• Hiremath, Midha and Foody are Thiel Fellows who left Harvard and Georgetown to build Mercor, and their milestone surpasses Mark Zuckerberg’s record of becoming a self-made billionaire at 23.