Hoffman, Pincus AI lab Prentis in talks to raise USD 100...

Prentis, an AI research lab launched in April, is in talks to raise $100 million at a $1 billion valuation, according to two people familiar with the discussions. The startup was co-founded by Ritankar Das along with Reid Hoffman and Marc Pincus, two names well known in Silicon Valley for backing companies early and often. Prentis is building models that watch how office workers move through routine tasks, filling out forms, switching between documents and systems, with the aim of training AI agents that can eventually take over those tasks by controlling a computer directly.

The company has already signed contracts worth up to $50 million with a handful of customers, including a healthcare management service organization, a manufacturer, and a clothing goods maker, the two people told TechCrunch. Investor materials reviewed by TechCrunch point to an estimated $75 million annualized run rate by the third quarter of this year, though Prentis's own pitch deck cautions those numbers reflect projected value tied to a fee structure, not booked revenue, and remain "performance-dependent and subject to final execution."