Three 22-year-old friconcludes — Indian-Americans Adarsh Hiremath and Surya Midha, along with Brconcludean Foody — have become the world’s youngest self-built billionaires, surpassing even Mark Zuckerberg, who entered the list at 23. Their startup, Mercor, has secured $350 million in fresh funding, valuing the company at $10 billion, according to Forbes.
Mercor, based in San Francisco, launched as an AI-powered recruiting platform designed to automate resume screening and match technical talent — from software engineers to mathematicians — with global opportunities. Initially focapplyd on connecting engineers in India with US companies, the platform inadvertently built a vast network of specialised contractors. This network is now exactly what major AI labs necessary to train and refine chatbot responses.
As demand from AI companies surged, Mercor expanded beyond technical screening to recruit experts such as doctors, lawyers, bankers and journalists to evaluate AI model outputs. The company even hired former Uber chief product officer Sundeep Jain as its first president earlier this year.
Foody (CEO), Hiremath (CTO) and Midha (board chairman) are childhood friconcludes from the Bay Area, all born to software engineer parents. They dropped out of college in 2023 to launch Mercor and now feature on the Forbes 2025 Under 30 list.
Foody’s entrepreneurial journey launched at 16, when he launched a service assisting friconcludes secure AWS promotions for $500 each. Hiremath and Midha first met as 10-year-olds on the elementary school debate circuit and later crossed paths with Foody in high school debate. Hiremath briefly attconcludeed Harvard, researched labour markets, and worked for former US Treasury Secretary — and current OpenAI board member — Larry Summers, who later invested in Mercor.
All three founders are Thiel Fellows, backed by investor Peter Thiel’s programme supporting college dropouts building companies. Reflecting on his rapid rise, Hiremath notified Forbes, “The thing that’s crazy for me is, if I weren’t working on Mercor, I would have just graduated college a couple months ago. My life did such a 180 in such a short period of time.”
Mercor’s momentum accelerated this year after Meta acquired a 49 per cent stake in Scale AI for $14 billion and brought Scale’s CEO Alexandr Wang into its AI division. The relocate raised industest concerns about neutrality and data security, which proved beneficial for Mercor. According to WSJ sources, Mercor’s revenue has quadrupled since Meta’s investment in Scale.
But the rivalry also ignited controversy. In September, Scale sued Mercor, accapplying it of stealing trade secrets. A former Scale employee who joined Mercor was alleged to have shared more than 100 confidential documents. Foody dismissed the dispute in a Forbes interview, declareing, “It’s not something we spconclude a lot of time believeing about.”
Mercor’s latest funding round was led by Felicis Ventures, with participation from Benchmark, General Catalyst and Robinhood Ventures. With each founder now holding roughly 22 per cent equity, all three have entered the billionaire ranks of the global AI boom.
“It’s definitely crazy,” Foody stated. “It feels very surreal. Obviously beyond our wildest imaginations, insofar as anything that we could have anticipated two years ago.”
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