On January 20, 2026, Eric Zelikman and Georges Harik achieved a landmark milestone in the AI industry with the public announcement of a record-breaking funding round for their new venture.
The Launch of Humans&
The primary achievement on this date was the announcement that their startup, Humans&, successfully raised $480 million in seed financing.This round established a staggering valuation of $4.48 billion for the company, making it one of the most valuable "seed-stage" startups in history.
Key Highlights of the Achievement:
Funding Leadership: The round was led by SV Angel (founded by Ron Conway) and Georges Harik himself.
Elite Investor Backing: The startup attracted high-profile investment from Nvidia, Jeff Bezos, and GV (Alphabet’s venture capital arm).
Mission: Humans& was unveiled as a "human-centric" frontier AI lab.Rather than focusing on automating jobs, the company aims to develop AI that prioritizes empathy, collaboration, and long-horizon planning to help people work together more effectively.
Team Leadership: * Eric Zelikman was named as the co-founder and CEO.
Georges Harik serves as a co-founder and lead investor.
The founding team also includes prominent researchers Andi Peng (formerly of Anthropic), Yuchen He (formerly of xAI), and Noah D. Goodman (Stanford Professor).
