Vendor profile · Directory · Expert network
Mercor
The expert network frontier labs scaled on: vetted doctors, lawyers, bankers and engineers paid hourly to produce evaluations, rubrics and reasoning data.
| Model | Expert network — labs pay hourly for vetted domain experts |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2023 |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, CA |
| Pricing | Not published — sales-led, hourly expert rates |
| Website | mercor.com |
What Mercor does
Mercor was founded in San Francisco in January 2023 by Brendan Foody, Adarsh Hiremath and Surya Midha. It recruits, vets and manages domain experts; AI labs pay an hourly rate for their time and receive the labeled data and evaluation output without running a staffing operation.
The company raised a $350 million Series C in October 2025 at a $10 billion valuation, roughly $480 million in total. Third-party reporting puts its active contractor base at around 30,000, with contractors receiving an estimated 60–70% of gross payments.
Strengths
- Purpose-built for the expert-data segment frontier labs now spend most on
- Very large active expert pool, per third-party reporting
- Deep-pocketed backing ($10B valuation, October 2025) signals staying power
Considerations
- No public pricing — rates are set per engagement
- Revenue and contractor figures are reported by third parties, not audited disclosures
- A 2023-founded company: shorter operating history than the managed-service incumbents
Other expert networks in the directory
- Micro1 — An expert network that vets specialists with an AI interviewer and publishes per-role pay ranges — one of the few transparent windows into expert-data pricing.
- CleverX — A verified-expert network whose identity checks — government ID, licence confirmation, recorded interviews — are the product, now selling expert data to AI labs.
Frequently asked questions
What does Mercor do?
The expert network frontier labs scaled on: vetted doctors, lawyers, bankers and engineers paid hourly to produce evaluations, rubrics and reasoning data.
How much does Mercor cost?
Mercor does not publish pricing (not published — sales-led, hourly expert rates). Any figure quoted by third parties is an estimate; budget discovery requires engaging the vendor directly.
Who is Mercor best for?
AI labs that need credentialed expert judgment — clinical, legal, financial, engineering — at serious scale and speed.
Who should not use Mercor?
Buyers who need commodity annotation (bounding boxes, classification) or a self-serve platform; Mercor sells expert time, not labeling tooling.
Sources
- Mercor funding history and valuation — RevenueMemo
- Mercor company profile — CapFinch
- Mercor deep dive — Value Add VC
Facts on this page were drawn from the public sources above, checked November 2026. If you spot an error, tell us at the corrections address in the footer — we fix sourced errors and note the change.
Profile last updated: November 8, 2026 · How we write profiles · Corrections: [email protected]