Prentis: A Groundbreaking AI Lab Co-Founded by Reid Hoffman and Mark Pincus Aiming for $100M Funding Round
Prentis, a newly established AI research lab dedicated to computer usage models, was co-founded by entrepreneur Ritankar Das alongside notable figures Reid Hoffman and Mark Pincus. The lab is currently seeking to secure $100 million in funding, aiming for a valuation of $1 billion, as reported by insiders.
Founded in April, Prentis focuses on training AI models to understand how office employees engage with routine tasks involving various documents and systems. Its primary objective is to create AI agents capable of managing these tasks to improve workflow automation.
The startup plans to design agents specifically suited to client requirements, such as processing insurance claims and automating customs duty refund exceptions, all without the necessity for human paperwork management.
So far, Prentis has secured contracts totaling up to $50 million with various clients, including healthcare organizations and manufacturers of goods and clothing, as shared by sources aware of the developments. These contracts suggest an anticipated annualized revenue of approximately $75 million by the third quarter of this year. However, it is crucial to note that these figures are based on projected values tied to savings, rather than recognized revenue, and are contingent on performance.
According to Prentis, its Hive-32B model surpasses competitors, including OpenAI’s GPT-5.4 and Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.6, in two key benchmarks evaluating computer use: WindowsAgentArena, which assesses complete task execution on actual Windows applications, and ScreenSpot-v2, which measures a model’s accuracy in identifying the correct on-screen controls.
In its proposal, Prentis claims its advantage stems from utilizing a more compact and cost-effective model, reporting costs roughly ten times lower per task compared to leading APIs. This positions it as a more feasible option for integration into daily operations. However, these results have yet to be independently verified.
Prentis is wagering that the automation of simple office tasks will emerge as the predominant application of AI, potentially surpassing coding. Nevertheless, the market is becoming increasingly competitive, with other firms like Anthropic, OpenAI, and Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab also developing AI agents for similar purposes. Furthermore, Anthropic has actively expanded its talent pool in this area, having acquired the Seattle-based startup Vercept and subsequently integrating its founders while discontinuing their product.
Attempts to reach Prentis for comment have gone unanswered.
Ritankar Das, the CEO of Prentis, is also the founder of Titan, a company focused on building and operating AI ventures. At just 31 years old, Das was recognized as UC Berkeley’s youngest University Medalist in over a century, completing a double major in bioengineering and chemical biology by age 18, followed by a master’s degree in biomedical engineering at Oxford.
Das started Titan in 2014 after leaving an AI PhD program at Cambridge, where he had been a Gates Cambridge Scholar. He views Titan as a return to a classic holding company model, similar to Berkshire Hathaway, funded more through its own successes than via external investors.
Titan has launched various enterprises, including Tala Health, an AI-driven virtual healthcare provider that raised $100 million in seed funding last year, and Forta Health, an autism care startup that secured $55 million in 2024 led by Insight Partners. Additionally, Dascena, a disease prediction firm founded by Titan, was acquired by CirrusDx in 2022.
For Hoffman and Pincus, Prentis serves as an additional endeavor. Hoffman, a co-founder of LinkedIn and partner at Greylock, announced last month plans to transition into a more founding role with Manas AI, an AI drug-discovery startup he is supporting. He was an early investor in OpenAI and co-founded Inflection AI with Mustafa Suleyman before much of that team was integrated into Microsoft in 2024.
Pincus, the creator of Zynga, now manages the investment firm Reinvent Capital, where Hoffman serves as a senior adviser. He recently released a memoir titled “Life at the Speed of Play.”
Prentis has already expanded its team to include more than 25 employees, featuring researchers with previous experience from top organizations like OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Meta, Tencent, and Alibaba, according to the company’s website.
