Vals AI Raises $40M Series A at $400M Valuation to Benchmark AI on Real-World Tasks

Vals AI Raises $40 Million Series A at $400 Million Valuation

San Francisco-based AI evaluation startup Vals AI has raised $40 million in Series A funding at a $400 million valuation to develop independent evaluations for AI models based on real-world professional tasks.

The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from existing investors 8VC, Pear VC, and Bloomberg Beta, alongside new investors HRT Ventures and Next Ladder Ventures.

The financing brings Vals AI additional capital as AI models increasingly move beyond answering questions and into performing complex, multi-step work.

Building Real-World AI Evaluations

Founded by Stanford computer science graduates Rayan Krishnan and Langston Nashold, Vals AI is developing evaluation systems designed to measure how AI models perform on practical professional tasks.

The company's approach combines domain experts across areas including law, finance, healthcare, and coding with automated grading systems.

Rather than relying entirely on public academic benchmarks, Vals uses private test sets designed to reduce benchmark contamination and gaming.

Measuring AI on the Job

Vals AI says its evaluations can produce benchmark results within hours of gaining access to a new AI model.

The company also retires tests when they no longer effectively distinguish between stronger and weaker models.

Its evaluations have been cited in model cards from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, and xAI, while enterprises use its scores when deciding which AI models to deploy.

Expanding Its Evaluation Platform

Alongside the funding, Vals launched several new products and initiatives.

Vals Smith allows customers to build coding benchmarks using their own GitHub repositories.

The company also introduced frontier-risk benchmarks covering areas including cybersecurity, mental health, and AI safety, alongside Vals Index 2.0, which expands its measurement capabilities across the broader economy.

Rapid Growth

Vals AI says its revenue has grown eightfold since 2025, while its customer base has doubled.

The company also says its team has tripled over the past six months.

The startup previously raised $5 million in seed funding from 8VC, Bloomberg Beta, and Pear VC.

Vals is positioning itself as an independent scorekeeper for the AI industry, with the goal of continuously updating evaluations as AI models improve.