Prentis Aims to Raise $100M at $1B Valuation for AI Automation Lab
Prentis, a new artificial intelligence research lab co-founded by Reid Hoffman and Mark Pincus, is in talks to raise $100 million at a $1 billion valuation. The company focuses on training models that automate routine office workflows using computer-use agents. Prentis has already secured contracts worth up to $50 million with clients across industries such as healthcare and manufacturing. The startup claims its Hive-32B model outperforms competitors like OpenAI's GPT-5.4 and Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.6 on key benchmarks, while also offering a significantly lower cost per task than existing AI APIs. However, TechCrunch has not independently verified these results. Prentis is entering an increasingly competitive market for computer-use agents, with companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Thinking Machines Lab already active in the space.
Topics: artificial intelligence enterprise automation funding startups