TLDR: Three young entrepreneurs, Brendan Foody, Adarsh Hiremath, and Surya Midha, all 22, have become the world’s youngest self-made billionaires. Their San Francisco-based AI recruitment startup, Mercor, recently secured $350 million in funding, valuing the company at $10 billion. Two of the co-founders, Adarsh Hiremath and Surya Midha, are of Indian origin. Mercor specializes in connecting AI labs with human experts for refining machine learning models.
In a groundbreaking development in the tech world, three 22-year-old entrepreneurs—Brendan Foody, Adarsh Hiremath, and Surya Midha—have officially become the youngest self-made billionaires globally. Their San Francisco-based artificial intelligence (AI) recruitment startup, Mercor, recently achieved a staggering $10 billion valuation after a successful $350 million funding round. This milestone places them ahead of Mark Zuckerberg, who became a billionaire at 23.
Mercor, founded in 2023, operates as an AI-powered recruitment platform that facilitates ‘human-in-the-loop’ processes for leading AI laboratories. The company connects these labs with a vast network of over 30,000 skilled human experts across various fields, including law, medicine, finance, and engineering. These contractors contribute to refining machine learning models, collectively earning over $1.5 million in payments daily, with an average hourly rate of $85.
The recent Series C funding round was led by Felicis Ventures, with significant participation from General Catalyst, Benchmark, and Robinhood Ventures. Each of the three co-founders holds approximately a 22 percent stake in Mercor, solidifying their billionaire status.
Two of Mercor’s co-founders, Adarsh Hiremath and Surya Midha, are of Indian origin. Midha, a second-generation immigrant, was born in Mountain View, California, to parents who immigrated from New Delhi, India. The trio’s journey began as high school friends at Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose, California, where they were prominent members of the school’s highly-ranked debate team. Hiremath and Midha, for instance, were ranked fifth nationally in policy debate.
Their academic paths initially led them to prestigious universities: Hiremath pursued computer science at Harvard University, while Midha studied foreign service and Foody economics at Georgetown University. However, all three ultimately dropped out of their respective programs to dedicate themselves fully to building Mercor. They are also recipients of the Thiel Fellowship, an initiative by billionaire investor Peter Thiel that provides funding to young entrepreneurs who forgo traditional college education to launch startups.
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Reflecting on his rapid ascent, Adarsh Hiremath told Forbes, “The thing that’s crazy for me is, if I weren’t working on Mercor, I would have just graduated college a couple of months ago. My life did such a 180 in such a short period of time.” Brendan Foody echoed this sentiment, describing their rise as “beyond our wildest imaginations” and emphasizing their continued focus on scaling Mercor, often working late into the night.
