Prentis Eyes $100 Million Raise for Agentic AI Lab
AI-generated image · US National Wire
The startup's focus on computer-use models signals a shift toward scalable enterprise automation over general LLM capabilities.
Prentis, an AI research lab that launched in April, is in talks to raise $100 million at a $1 billion valuation, as TechCrunch reported. Co-founded by Ritankar Das, Reid Hoffman, and Marc Pincus, the company focuses on developing AI agents capable of controlling computers to automate routine office workflows, such as processing insurance claims and customs duty refund exceptions.
While frontier models from OpenAI and Anthropic compete in the space, Prentis is positioning its Hive-32B model as a more economical alternative. According to TechCrunch, Prentis claims its model is roughly 10 times cheaper per task than frontier APIs and outperforms OpenAI’s GPT-5.4 and Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.6 on the ScreenSpot-v2 and WindowsAgentArena benchmarks. TechCrunch noted it has not independently verified these results.
The startup's commercial traction includes contracts worth up to $50 million with a manufacturer, goods and clothing manufacturers, and a healthcare management service organization. Investor materials obtained by TechCrunch project an estimated annualized run rate of $75 million by the third quarter of this year, though the company notes these figures are performance-dependent and based on contracted fees equal to 20% of realized savings rather than recognized revenue.
CEO Ritankar Das previously founded Titan, a holding company that launched Tala Health, Forta Health, and Dascena (acquired by CirrusDx in 2022). Prentis has hired over 25 employees, including former researchers from Meta, Google DeepMind, OpenAI, Alibaba, and Tencent.