Prentis, AI Lab Co-Founded by Reid Hoffman and Marc Pincus, Seeks $100M at $1B Valuation

Prentis, a new AI research lab specializing in computer use models, is in talks to raise $100 million at a $1 billion valuation, according to two sources familiar with the discussions. The startup was co-founded by serial entrepreneur Ritankar Das alongside tech heavyweights Reid Hoffman and Marc Pincus. Launched in April 2025, Prentis trains models to understand how office workers navigate routine workflows across documents and systems. The ultimate goal: build AI agents that can control computers to automate those tasks. Prentis plans to develop agents tailored to specific customer needs, such as processing insurance claims or automating customs duty refund exceptions—tasks that currently require employees to manually track down paperwork. The startup has already signed contracts worth up to $50 million with several clients, including a healthcare management service organization, a manufacturer, and goods and clothing producers. According to investor materials reviewed by TechCrunch, the company projects an estimated $75 million annualized run rate by the third quarter of 2026. However, Prentis’s pitch deck notes that these 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’s Hive-32B model outperforms rivals, including OpenAI’s GPT-5.4 and Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.6, on two computer-use benchmarks: WindowsAgentArena, which measures end-to-end task completion on real Windows applications, and ScreenSpot-v2, which tests a model’s ability to locate the correct on-screen control. The company claims its competitive edge stems from running a much smaller, cheaper model—roughly 10 times lower cost per task than frontier APIs—making it more economical for everyday workflows. TechCrunch has not independently verified these benchmark results. The startup is betting that automating routine office tasks will soon surpass coding as AI’s biggest use case. However, the market is crowded: Anthropic, OpenAI, and Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines are also developing AI agents for computer use, according to one source. Anthropic has been acquiring talent in this space directly, purchasing Seattle-based computer-use startup Vercept earlier this year (February 2026), integrating its founders and shutting down its product. Prentis did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment. Ritankar Das, CEO of Prentis, is also the founder of Titan, a holding company that builds and operates AI ventures. Das, now 31, was UC Berkeley’s youngest University Medalist in more than a century, graduating at 18 with a double major in bioengineering and chemical biology before earning a master’s in biomedical engineering at Oxford. He founded Titan in 2014 after leaving a PhD in AI at Cambridge, where he had been a Gates Cambridge Scholar. Das describes Titan as a throwback to the old-fashioned holding company model, akin to Berkshire Hathaway—funded by its own exits rather than outside limited partners.

via TechCrunch AI