Prentis AI Lab Seeks $100M at $1B Valuation
Original: Prentis, new AI lab co-founded by Reid Hoffman, Mark Pincus in talks to raise $100M
Why This Matters
Computer-use AI agents are emerging as a major enterprise automation category, attracting significant funding and competition from top labs.
Prentis, an AI research lab co-founded by Reid Hoffman, Mark Pincus, and CEO Ritankar Das, is in talks to raise $100 million at a $1 billion valuation. Launched in April 2026, the startup focuses on computer-use AI agents that automate routine office workflows.
Prentis, founded in April 2026, is developing AI agents designed to control computers and automate routine office tasks such as processing insurance claims and handling customs duty refund exceptions. The lab was co-founded by serial entrepreneur Ritankar Das (CEO), LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and Zynga co-founder Mark Pincus. According to two sources familiar with the discussions, Prentis is in talks to raise $100 million at a $1 billion valuation. The startup has already signed contracts worth up to $50 million with customers including a healthcare management service organization, a manufacturer, and goods and clothing manufacturers. Internal pitch materials project an estimated $75 million annualized run rate by Q3 2026, though the company notes these figures are performance-dependent and based on contracted fees equal to 20% of realized savings, not recognized revenue. Prentis claims its Hive-32B model outperforms OpenAI's GPT-5.4 and Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.6 on two benchmarks — WindowsAgentArena and ScreenSpot-v2 — at roughly 10 times lower cost per task than frontier APIs. The company operates in a competitive market alongside Anthropic, OpenAI, and Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab. TechCrunch has not independently verified the benchmark claims.