AI makes 2 Indian-origin founders world’s youngest self-made billionaires worth ₹40,000 crore each, beats Zuckerberg
What happened
Adarsh Hiremath and Surya Midha, both 23 years old and of Indian origin, co-founded the AI startup Mercor. Mercor recently completed a $750 million funding round, which brought its valuation to $20 billion. This funding round increased the estimated net worth of Hiremath and Midha to $4.2 billion each. Mercor operates as a platform connecting freelance professionals to AI companies and plans to expand its services in AI evaluation and post-training.
Key details
- Mercor's latest funding round was backed by investors such as Benchmark, General Catalyst, Nvidia, and Salesforce.
- Each founder holds a 21% stake in Mercor.
- Mercor was launched in 2023 by Hiremath, Midha, and Brendan Foody.
- The company initially focused on connecting freelance coders in India with US companies, later expanding to data labelling and AI model training.
- Mercor's $20 billion valuation is below rivals like Scale AI ($29 billion) and Surge AI ($24 billion).
Why it matters
The rise in Mercor's valuation and the founders' wealth directly affects the competitive landscape for AI startups and freelance professionals seeking opportunities in the sector. Investors and companies working with AI now have a new, well-funded platform for connecting with talent and for AI model evaluation and post-training services. Freelancers and professionals may see more opportunities and resources as Mercor expands its offerings.