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Hone

Agent vendor whose job ads say "Hone runs its own operations on engines"; no internal function or metric disclosed yet.

Claims L2, unverifiedD · Founder claims only

Claimed capability · evidence still developing

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The recorded proposition

Agent vendor for enterprises; says it runs its own operations on its Engines.

Index summary of the positioning; not an independent finding.

San Francisco agent vendor that launched on 8 October 2026 with a $60M seed round led by Benchmark and co-led by Index Ventures (Hone, Index Ventures and Bloomberg); Bloomberg reports a $285M valuation according to Hone. Its product, Engines, is sold to enterprises: persistent agents assigned an outcome, which Hone says work in Slack, Teams and email and need human approval for sensitive actions. On the watchlist only because Hone's job ads say it runs its own operations on Engines. That claim comes from hiring copy, names no function already handed to an Engine and gives no metrics; the ads describe humans building each function first and handing it to an Engine later. Revenue is not disclosed. LinkedIn lists a self-reported 11-50 staff band, and Hone listed 12 open roles on 19 October 2026. Checked 19 October 2026.

Where humans remain involved

Ongoing human hours, approval frequency and intervention rates have not been measured in this record. Reported team size describes the company, not the labor required to operate a customer business.

What still needs evidence

Establish a repeatable production workflow, identify the tasks people still perform, and measure cost, reliability and customer outcomes before drawing conclusions about business autonomy.

Recorded caveat: Provisional L2, grade D, low confidence. The dogfooding claim comes from job ads only and reads as forward-looking. Out of scope as tooling unless a dated first-party account shows an Engine running a named Hone function end to end with metrics. Revenue undisclosed; 11-50 staff (LinkedIn band) and 12 open roles fail the size test. $285M valuation is per Hone.

Financial and team context

Reported figures retain their original scope. Revenue periods and headcount dates may differ; these are not a current audited financial statement.

Financial observation
Not reported

No field-specific source recorded.

Reported team
Not reported

No field-specific source recorded.

Funding as recorded
$60MSource: Hone ↗

No financial or headcount observations recorded.

Round / transaction: $60M seed (Benchmark lead, Index Ventures co-lead)

Recorded date: 2026-10-08

Valuation: $285M (per Hone, reported by Bloomberg)

Investors / backers: Benchmark · Index Ventures

Pricing and commercial terms

No public pricing. The CEO says Hone is exploring budget- or outcome-based pricing (TBPN Digest, 8 Oct 2026).

Historical research snapshot. A pricing verification date is not recorded; confirm current plans, usage limits and additional costs with the provider before purchasing.

Founders and recorded roles

  • Moritz Stephan

    CEO. Previously at Cognition, latterly as chief of staff; Stanford CS, agent research at the Stanford AI Lab (Index Ventures, LinkedIn).

  • Oliver Brady

    Co-founder and CTO. Previously an engineer at Harvey and head of engineering for enterprise at Mercor (Index Ventures, LinkedIn).

  • Carlo Kobe

    Co-founder. 2025 Thiel Fellow; previously co-founded and ran Fizz, later Mine, with Moritz Stephan (Thiel Foundation, LinkedIn).

Recorded technology stack

  • Hone Engines (own product)

Components listed in the research record; integrations have not been independently tested here.

Research timeline

  1. 2026-10-19

    Hone job ads (Ashby) say "Hone runs its own operations on engines"; the roles describe handing functions to Engines once they work, with no function named as already handed over. ↗

  2. 2026-10-08

    Hone launches Engines and announces a $60M seed round from Benchmark and Index. ↗

  3. 2026-10-08

    Bloomberg reports the round values Hone at $285M, according to the company. ↗

  4. 2026-10-08

    Index Ventures explains its investment in Hone. ↗

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Sources and coverage limits

This profile brings together the existing Index research. Company announcements, sponsored articles and founder interviews can establish what was said; they do not independently prove sustained autonomy or revenue.