In a record-breaking achievement, Indian-Americans Adarsh Hiremath and Surya Midha, both 22 years old, along with their friend Brendan Foody, have become the world’s youngest self-made billionaires after their AI recruiting startup Mercor raised $350 million at a $10-billion valuation. The trio surpassed Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who became a billionaire at 23 in 2008, marking a new milestone in the tech world’s youth-driven success stories.
The Billionaire Founders of Mercor
The three co-founders — Hiremath, Midha, and Foody — each hold approximately 22% ownership in Mercor, according to Forbes, pushing their personal net worths past the billion-dollar mark. Their startup’s rapid rise underscores the global surge in AI-driven innovation and labor-market disruption.
The AI recruiting platform Mercor, launched in 2023, connects Indian software developers and engineers with US companies seeking freelance coding talent. Within just two years, the company achieved $500 million in annualised revenue run rate, up from $100 million in March 2025, according to the Forbes Cloud 100 report.
Adarsh Hiremath: From Harvard to the Thiel Fellowship
Adarsh Hiremath, born in the United States to Indian immigrant parents from Karnataka, grew up in San Jose, California, and attended Bellarmine College Preparatory, an all-boys high school known for its competitive academic programs.
At Bellarmine, Hiremath and Midha made debate history by becoming the first duo ever to win all three national policy debate championships in a single year. Hiremath later enrolled at Harvard University to study Computer Science, where he also worked as a research assistant in macroeconomics under former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.
During his sophomore year, Hiremath co-founded Mercor from his Harvard dorm room, driven by his belief that “labor aggregation would be the greatest opportunity of the 21st century.” He later dropped out of Harvard to focus full-time on Mercor and received the prestigious Thiel Fellowship, which provides $100,000 grants to young entrepreneurs willing to leave college to pursue startup ventures.
Reflecting on his success, Hiremath told Forbes, “The thing that’s crazy for me is, if I weren’t working on Mercor, I would have just graduated from college a couple of months ago.”
Surya Midha: Youngest Co-Founder & Global Visionary
Surya Midha, the youngest among the trio, was born in Mountain View, California, to Indian parents who migrated from New Delhi. Raised in San Jose, he pursued a Bachelor’s degree in Foreign Studies at Georgetown University, where he met co-founder Brendan Foody.
Midha’s strong understanding of international markets and cross-border collaboration helped shape Mercor’s mission of bridging global talent pools, especially between India and the United States.
At just 22, Midha’s leadership style has been described as globally minded, combining policy insight with a deep understanding of AI-driven labor ecosystems.
Brendan Foody: The Economics Architect
Brendan Foody, also a Thiel Fellow and a graduate of Georgetown University in Economics, helped shape Mercor’s scalable business model and financial architecture. His parents’ background in technology and entrepreneurship—his mother worked for Meta’s real estate division and his father founded a graphics interface company in the 1990s—deeply influenced his startup acumen.
Together, the three co-founders leveraged AI to reimagine how global companies source, vet, and deploy technical talent. Their platform’s rapid expansion across North America, India, and Southeast Asia has positioned Mercor among the world’s fastest-growing private AI companies.
Mercor’s Rise: From Dorm Room to $10B Valuation
Mercor’s core technology focuses on AI-assisted recruitment, enabling companies to automatically match candidates with job opportunities using data-driven algorithms. By streamlining hiring for remote teams, especially in India’s thriving tech ecosystem, Mercor bridged a major global talent gap.
Since its inception:
- Founded: 2023
- Headquarters: San Francisco, California
- Funding Raised: $350 million (2025)
- Valuation: $10 billion
- Annualised Revenue Run Rate: $500 million (as of September 2025)
Its inclusion in the Forbes Cloud 100 list in 2025 cemented Mercor’s reputation as one of the top private cloud-based AI firms worldwide.
Thiel Fellowship: The Common Thread
All three founders — Hiremath, Midha, and Foody — are recipients of the Thiel Fellowship, the highly selective program founded by billionaire Peter Thiel, which provides young innovators with $100,000 in funding in exchange for leaving college to build startups.
This fellowship has also backed other notable entrepreneurs such as Vitalik Buterin (Ethereum), Austin Russell (Luminar Technologies), and Alexandr Wang (Scale AI).
Breaking Billionaire Records
The Mercor founders’ inclusion on Forbes’ Billionaires List shattered multiple records:
- Youngest self-made billionaires in history (age 22)
- Younger than Mark Zuckerberg, who achieved billionaire status at 23
- Among the fastest startups to reach $10B valuation (within 2 years)
The previous youngest billionaire title was briefly held by 27-year-old Shayne Coplan, founder of Polymarket, following a $2-billion investment from Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange.
Quick Reference Summary
| Particulars | Details |
| Startup Name | Mercor |
| Founded | 2023 |
| Founders | Adarsh Hiremath, Surya Midha, Brendan Foody |
| Average Age | 22 |
| Valuation | $10 billion |
| Recent Funding | $350 million |
| Revenue Run Rate | $500 million (as of Sep 2025) |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California |
| Core Focus | AI-based global hiring & recruitment |
| Distinction | World’s youngest self-made billionaires (2025) |
With Mercor’s meteoric rise, Adarsh Hiremath, Surya Midha, and Brendan Foody have rewritten the history of entrepreneurship. At just 22, they represent a new generation of innovators redefining work through AI, automation, and global collaboration.
Their journey from classmates to billionaires underscores how ambition, technology, and timing can converge to create transformative global enterprises. For the latest updates on their story and Mercor’s next milestones, stay tuned to Forbes and official Mercor announcements—and bookmark this page for verified insights.
