AfterQuery hits $3.2B valuation 18 months after founding, up 10x in 5 months
创业邦 · wechat · 2026-09-07
AfterQuery, an AI training-data startup founded by two 20-somethings, reached a $3.2B valuation roughly 18 months after founding — up from $300M at its $30M Series A just five months earlier, making it the fastest unicorn in YC history per YC partner Gustaf Alströmer.
The company captures process data from how real experts complete complex tasks, with nearly 100k verified professionals earning $75-250/hour. ARR jumped from over $100M in April to several hundred million within three months, and it's profitable. It was the only external data company named in NVIDIA's Nemotron 3 Ultra report, lifting GDPval scores from 35.3 to 46.7. Its business now spans RL environments, evals, and post-training infrastructure, competing with Scale AI, Surge AI, Mercor, and Handshake. Key risks: synthetic data substitution, customers building in-house expert networks, and low data reuse economics.
Related event: Gen-Z Founders Hit $3.2B Unicorn Valuation in 18 Months(2 posts)→
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