Brendan Foody grew up in the Bay Area and co-captained the debate team at Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose. There he met Adarsh Hiremath and Surya Midha, his future co-founders.
Foody left Georgetown University in spring 2023 and founded Mercor that year. The three founders were named Thiel Fellows. The first product matched freelance programmers in India with US firms using AI interviews.
Mercor then moved into expert data work for AI labs, with contractors such as lawyers and doctors teaching models. In May 2025 it hired Sundeep Jain as its first president. In October 2025 it raised $350 million at a $10 billion valuation, about five times its prior value.
Forbes reported on 31 October 2025 that the founders had become the youngest self-made billionaires. Mercor reported a $1 billion run rate in February 2026 and above $2 billion by June 2026. In March 2026 a supply-chain attack through the LiteLLM package led to class actions.