Prentis, new AI lab co-founded by Reid Hoffman, Mark Pincus in talks to raise $100M

3:25 PM PDT · July 24, 2026

Prentis, a new AI research lab focused on computer use models, co-founded by serial entrepreneur Ritankar Das and tech heavyweights Reid Hoffman and Mark Pincus, is in talks to raise $100millionata$1 billion valuation, according to two people familiar with the discussions.

Launched in April, Prentis is training models to learn how office workers navigate routine workflows across documents and systems, with the goal of building AI agents that can control computers to automate those tasks.

Prentis will ostensibly develop agents tailored to these customers’ needs, such as handling insurance claims and automating customs duty refund exceptions without needing a human to hunt down paperwork.

The startup has already signed contracts worth up to $50millionwithseveralcustomers,includingahealthcaremanagementserviceorganization,amanufacturer,andgoodsandclothingmanufacturers,thetwopeoplefamiliarwiththediscussionstellTechCrunch.ThisechoesinvestormaterialsobtainedbyTechCrunchthatpredictanestimated$75 million annualized run rate by the third quarter of this year. (Prentis’ pitch deck notes those figures reflect estimated annualized value based on a contracted fee equal to 20% of savings realized, not recognized revenue, and are “performance-dependent and subject to final execution.”)

By its own account, Prentis says its Hive-32B model outperforms rivals, including OpenAI’s GPT-5.4 and Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.6, on two computer-use benchmarks: WindowsAgentArena and ScreenSpot-v2. The company argues its edge comes from running a much smaller, cheaper model—claiming roughly 10 times lower cost per task than frontier APIs. TechCrunch hasn’t independently verified the company’s benchmark results.

The startup is betting that automating everyday office tasks will soon outpace coding as AI’s biggest use case. Anthropic, OpenAI, and Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab are also working on computer-use agents; Anthropic acquired Seattle computer-use startup Vercept earlier this year.

Prentis didn’t respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.

Ritankar Das, CEO of Prentis, founded Titan, a holding company that builds and operates AI companies. Hoffman (LinkedIn co-founder, Greylock) and Pincus (Zynga founder, Reinvent Capital) are co-founders. Prentis has hired more than 25 employees, including researchers from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Meta, Tencent, and Alibaba.