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RL environment companies and deals tracker (2026): who builds them and who pays for company data

Who builds RL environments for AI labs: 18 companies with funding, domains and whether they pay for company data, plus deals and what environments cost.

By Origin Data PartnersPublished Sources checked November 4, 2026
Lab spending discussed
$1B+Anthropic, per The Information (Sept 2025)
Typical lab contracts
6 to 7 figuresPer quarter (Epoch AI, Jan 2026)
Slack-grade replica
~$300KTo build; a website replica ~$20K
Company data deals
$100K to $4MTypical range at one builder
A laptop showing a code diff with a sprint board behind
Short answer

RL environment companies build simulated workplaces where AI agents practise tasks and are scored: replicas of CRMs, ticketing tools, code repositories and finance workflows, filled with realistic data. The largest suppliers are human-data companies that added environments (Mercor, Surge AI, Scale AI, Handshake AI, Turing, micro1) and specialists such as Prime Intellect, Halluminate, Deeptune (acquired by Mercor), HUD, Plato and Patronus AI. Several pay companies for operational data to make environments realistic: Handshake AI says its partnerships typically run $100,000 to $4 million, and micro1 committed $1 billion over 12 months. Contracts with labs often run six to seven figures per quarter, according to Epoch AI.

  • Most environment builders sell to a handful of frontier labs; Anthropic alone discussed spending more than $1 billion on environments over a year.
  • Builders pay for company data because realism is the bottleneck: a Slack-grade replica can cost about $300,000 to build.
  • Finance, enterprise apps, coding and computer use are where most new environments are being built.

RL environment companies compared

Funding and scale are as reported by the linked source. "Pays for company data" means the company or a named report says it buys or licenses operational data from businesses.

CompanyWhat it buildsDomainsFunding or scalePays for company data?Source
MercorEnvironments, tasks and verifiers for frontier labs; acquired DeeptuneCoding, healthcare, law, finance, enterprise apps$350M Series C at $10B (Oct 2025)Yes: licenses and pays for company dataMercor
micro1Environments built from de-identified company dataEnterprise operations and workflows$1B data commitment financed by Citi and Hercules Capital (Oct 2026)Yes: $100K to $2M per approved data packagemicro1
Handshake AIEnvironments built with employer data partnershipsFinance (investment banking), enterprise workflowsAI-training revenue near $1B annualised (Apr 2026)Yes: partnerships typically $100K to $4MDealroom
Surge AIInternal RL-environments organisationEnterprise IT, legal and other professional workReported $1.2B revenue in 2024Yes: buys data to build "RL gyms"MIT Technology Review
Scale AIScale RL Environments for training and evaluationTool use, computer use, codingNearly half of new data projects involve environmentsNot statedScale AI
TuringCoding data and environments for labsCoding$111M Series E at $2.2B (Mar 2025)Yes: bought 5 to 10 failed-startup code bases at tens of thousands eachFortune
Prime IntellectOpen Environments Hub, RL framework and computeOpen community environments: coding, math, tool use$130M Series A at $1B; $100M revenue run rate (Jul 2026)Not statedTechCrunch
HalluminateBenchmarks and environments for knowledge workFinance and consulting$30M Series A, $38.5M total (Oct 2026)Yes, per an investor: licenses operational data, up to six or seven figuresFortune
DeeptuneHigh-fidelity replicas of workplace softwareSlack, Salesforce, ticketing, finance$43M Series A (Mar 2026); acquired by Mercor (Jul 2026)Not statedFortune
HUDPlatform and vendor marketplace for building and selling environmentsCoding, computer use, browser$16M Series A; 2,500+ environments (Jun 2026)Not statedHUD
PlatoSimulated workplaces for real jobsCustomer support, people ops, finance, accounting, healthcare admin$16M Series A, $19M total (Oct 2026)Pays professionals to recreate their jobsPR Newswire
Patronus AI"Digital world models" to train and stress-test agentsSoftware engineering, finance$50M Series B, $70M total (Jun 2026)Not statedTechCrunch
MechanizeSoftware-engineering environmentsCoding$9.1M at $500M post-money (Apr 2026); Google talent deal (Sept 2026)Not statedBusiness Insider
Bespoke LabsPlatform that generates and runs environmentsAgent post-training$31.75M Series A (Jul 2026)Not statedSiliconANGLE
Ooak DataAnonymised digital twins of a company's toolsGmail, Slack, Notion, Jira, Drive, SharePointAbove seven figures in revenue (YC, Aug 2026)Yes: $4M+ paid out to companies, per its CEOY Combinator
Abaka AIFull-stack simulated SaaS appsEnterprise messaging, e-commerce, recruitingBuilt a recruiting environment from de-identified internal dataUses de-identified internal dataAbaka AI
PolymathLong-horizon, multi-tool software environmentsSoftware engineeringMore than $8M raisedNot statedPolymath
Veris AISimulation environments for enterprise agentsEnterprise agents$8.5M seed (Jun 2025)Not statedVeris AI

RL environment deals tracker

Funding rounds, acquisitions and data commitments with a named source, newest first.

DateCompanyDealValueSource
Nov 2026Handshake AIPartnership with Fireworks AI on enterprise RL environmentsUndisclosedHandshake
Oct 2026PlatoSeries A led by Nava Ventures$16MPR Newswire
Oct 2026Handshake AIEmployer Data Partnerships launched to buy company data for environments$100K to $4M per partnership (typical)Handshake
Oct 2026micro1Commitment to acquire and license company operational data over 12 months$1Bmicro1
Oct 2026HalluminateSeries A led by Oak HC/FT$30MFortune
Sept 2026MechanizeGoogle talent deal and technology licence completedTalks reported at $1.5B+; final terms undisclosedBusiness Insider
Sept 2026micro1Series B at a $4B valuation$4B valuationmicro1
Aug 2026micro1Data-licensing commitments to seed environments over 11 days$20M+CEO on LinkedIn
Jul 2026MercorAcquisition of DeeptuneUndisclosedMercor
Jul 2026Prime IntellectSeries A led by Radical Ventures at a $1B valuation$130MTechCrunch
Jul 2026Bespoke LabsSeries A led by Wing VC$31.75MSiliconANGLE
Jun 2026HUDSeries A led by Standard Capital$16MHUD
Jun 2026Patronus AISeries B led by Greenfield Partners$50MTechCrunch
Apr 2026MechanizeFunding at a $500M post-money valuation$9.1MMechanize
Mar 2026DeeptuneSeries A led by Andreessen Horowitz$43MFortune
Oct 2025MercorSeries C at a $10B valuation$350MTechCrunch
Jun 2025Veris AISeed round led by Decibel and Acrew$8.5MVeris AI
Mar 2025TuringSeries E at a $2.2B valuation$111MTechCrunch

What RL environments cost

Epoch AI interviewed 18 people across environment startups and labs for a January 2026 FAQ. Contracts often run six to seven figures per quarter. A replica of a website costs about $20,000 to build, while a high-fidelity replica of a tool like Slack can cost about $300,000. Individual tasks typically cost $200 to $2,000 each, and exclusive deals cost four to five times more than non-exclusive ones. Spending on environments is still small next to compute, and labs are bringing more of the work in-house.

Labs are leaning in: Anthropic's leaders discussed spending more than $1 billion on environments over a year, TechCrunch reported from The Information in September 2025, and nearly half of Scale AI's new data projects now involve environments, it said in February 2026.

RL environments by domain

DomainWhat the environment containsBuilders in this trackerCompany data that fits
Coding and software engineeringRepositories with failing tests, CI, logs and issue trackersMechanize, Turing, Polymath, Scale AI, Prime IntellectSource code with history
Computer use and browser agentsReplicas of websites and desktop appsHUD, Scale AIProduct usage sessions, see AI usage logs
Finance and consultingDeal rooms, models, filings and banking workflowsHalluminate, Handshake AI, Patronus AIDeal and portfolio records
Enterprise appsCRM, ticketing, chat and email replicas filled with recordsDeeptune, Mercor, micro1, Ooak Data, Abaka AISlack and email archives, support tickets
Customer support and operationsTicket queues, knowledge bases and back-office toolsPlato, micro1Tickets with resolutions, procedures
Healthcare and lawClinical admin and legal drafting workflowsMercor, Plato, Surge AIPatient records, law-firm templates

What this means for a company with data

Environment builders compete on realism, and realism comes from real records: messy, linked and with outcomes attached. That is why several now pay companies directly. The buyers with published ranges in this tracker pay $100,000 to $4 million per partnership, and wind-down sales of smaller startups' archives run from about $10,000 to $100,000. See what RL environments are for which records make good environment data.

Who buys company data, and who helps you sell it

Buyers, intermediaries and what deals have paid:

Next step

If your company holds tickets, chat, CRM history, code or finance workflows, Origin can tell you which environment builders would want them and what they are likely to pay.

Origin Data Partners works with companies that own data and helps get it bought. We are independent of the services on this page, and a buyer may pay us when a deal closes (how Origin is paid). See what your data is worth.

Common questions

Which companies build RL environments?

Human-data companies that added environments, such as Mercor, Surge AI, Scale AI, Handshake AI, Turing and micro1, and specialists such as Prime Intellect, Halluminate, HUD, Plato, Patronus AI, Bespoke Labs, Polymath and Ooak Data. Deeptune was acquired by Mercor in July 2026.

What are the biggest RL environment startups?

By reported funding, Prime Intellect raised $130 million at a $1 billion valuation in July 2026, Patronus AI $50 million, Deeptune $43 million before Mercor acquired it, and Halluminate $30 million. Mercor, valued at $10 billion, calls itself the largest RL environments company.

Do RL environment companies buy company data?

Several do. Handshake AI says its partnerships typically run $100,000 to $4 million, micro1 committed $1 billion over 12 months and pays $100,000 to $2 million per approved package, Surge AI buys data for its RL gyms, and Ooak Data's CEO says it has paid companies more than $4 million.

How much does an RL environment cost?

Epoch AI reported that a website replica costs about $20,000 and a Slack-grade replica about $300,000 to build, tasks cost $200 to $2,000 each, and lab contracts often run six to seven figures per quarter. Exclusive deals cost four to five times more.

What are RL environments for finance?

Simulated deal rooms, models, filings and banking workflows where agents practise analyst tasks. Halluminate, Handshake AI and Patronus AI build them, and finance firms' historical records are the realistic data they need.

What is an RL gym?

Another name for an RL environment: a simulated setting where an AI agent practises tasks and an automatic grader scores it. The term comes from earlier reinforcement learning toolkits and is still used by builders that sell "RL gyms" to labs.

Sources and further reading

Origin Data Partners is independent and not affiliated with any buyer named on this page.

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