HUD B Verified
RL environment company · Long-Horizon
- On X
- @hud_evals ↗
- Funding
- $16M raised · Y Combinator W25 · rounds and investors
- Tier
- B why
- Snapshot
What HUD does
HUD sells an SDK and hosted platform for building, running, training and evaluating models on RL environments, plus DataVendor, a marketplace connecting environment and data suppliers (including codebases) with AI labs.
- Sells
- RL environments, Data and Infrastructure
- Leads with
- Several domains (a generalist)
- Based in
- San Francisco, USA
- Team
- 11-25
- Website
- hud.ai ↗
What HUD sells
Read from HUD's own website, checked October 11, 2026: the line that puts it in each category.
RL environments
“The platform for building RLenvironments”
hud.ai ↗“HUD SDKDefine evals, environments, and verifiers.”
hud.ai ↗
Data expanding into
Infrastructure
Domains HUD covers
HUD competitors and alternatives
The companies that sell the most of the same things in the same domains, and what they share with HUD.
- AfterQuery Also sells RL environments and evals · also in coding, computer use and enterprise work
- BenchFlow Also sells RL environments, evals, sandboxes and compute and training platforms · also in enterprise work
- Collinear Also sells RL environments and evals · also in coding, computer use and enterprise work
- Prime Intellect Also sells RL environments, evals, training platforms and sandboxes and compute · also in coding
- Refresh Also sells RL environments and evals · also in coding, computer use and enterprise work
Tier B
Growing: 11 to 50 people, or $3M+ raised.
How much stands behind a tier: usage, who backs it, a confirmed line from its own site or paper, and a clear read on X. High with three of the four, medium with two, low otherwise.
- team 11-50
- raised $16M
- investors: Standard Capital, Y Combinator, Exceptional Capital
- went through Y Combinator Winter 2025
- in curated RL directories (5 pts)
On X · well regarded, low buzz, from 11 posts about HUD in the last month
HUD appears mainly through partnerships, such as Sixtyfour's RECON benchmark and robotics cloud evals, plus mentions in YC and Fireworks customer lists; engagement is small.
How we got to tier B
- Adoption: team 11-50; raised $16M; investors: Standard Capital, Y Combinator, Exceptional Capital; went through Y Combinator Winter 2025. Tier B.
- On X: well regarded, low buzz. “HUD appears mainly through partnerships, such as Sixtyfour's RECON benchmark and robotics cloud evals, plus mentions in YC and Fireworks customer lists; engagement is small.” No move.
- In curated RL directories: 5 points, a floor of C.
- Confirmed: a line from its own site or paper places it.
A clear view on X moves a tier one step up or down; most entries don't move. How tiers work.
HUD funding
- Raised
- $16Msum of the rounds below
- Latest round
- Series A $16M2026-06 · led by Standard Capital
- Accelerator
- Y Combinator W25
Backed byY Combinator Winter 2025Standard CapitalExceptional CapitalLiquid 2 VenturesTwenty Two Ventures
Rounds
- Series A · $16M · 2026-06 · led by Standard Capital
We raised a $16M Series A led by Standard Capital to build the software that turns data into better AI.
- Read: “We raised a $16M Series A led by Standard Capital to build the software that turns data into better AI.”
- Found word for word on its own site: hud.ai/blog/announcing-16m-series-a
- The quote states the amount and who led it
- No other page or directory names it yet
Accelerator
- Y Combinator Winter 2025
- Y Combinator's company directory lists HUD with the website hud.ai, in its Winter 2025 batch
- Checkable on YC's page: ycombinator.com/companies/hud
- 2 pages read also name Y Combinator
Funds 4
- Standard Capital led a round
Named in the round quoted above.
- Exceptional Capital
Our round included participation from Y Combinator, Exceptional Capital, Liquid 2 Ventures, and Twenty Two Ventures
- Read: “Our round included participation from Y Combinator, Exceptional Capital, Liquid 2 Ventures, and Twenty Two Ventures”
- Found word for word on its own site: hud.ai/blog/announcing-16m-series-a
- Also named by a curated directory
- Liquid 2 Ventures
Our round included participation from Y Combinator, Exceptional Capital, Liquid 2 Ventures, and Twenty Two Ventures
- Read: “Our round included participation from Y Combinator, Exceptional Capital, Liquid 2 Ventures, and Twenty Two Ventures”
- Found word for word on its own site: hud.ai/blog/announcing-16m-series-a
- Also named by a curated directory
- Twenty Two Ventures
Our round included participation from Y Combinator, Exceptional Capital, Liquid 2 Ventures, and Twenty Two Ventures
- Read: “Our round included participation from Y Combinator, Exceptional Capital, Liquid 2 Ventures, and Twenty Two Ventures”
- Found word for word on its own site: hud.ai/blog/announcing-16m-series-a
- Also named by a curated directory
Angels 4
- Dylan Patel
with angel investments from Dylan Patel from SemiAnalysis, Roon from OpenAI, Ivan Burazin from Daytona, and Theo Browne
- Read: “with angel investments from Dylan Patel from SemiAnalysis, Roon from OpenAI, Ivan Burazin from Daytona, and Theo Browne”
- Found word for word on its own site: hud.ai/blog/announcing-16m-series-a
- Also named by a curated directory
- Ivan Burazin
with angel investments from Dylan Patel from SemiAnalysis, Roon from OpenAI, Ivan Burazin from Daytona, and Theo Browne
- Read: “with angel investments from Dylan Patel from SemiAnalysis, Roon from OpenAI, Ivan Burazin from Daytona, and Theo Browne”
- Found word for word on its own site: hud.ai/blog/announcing-16m-series-a
- Also named by a curated directory
- Roon
with angel investments from Dylan Patel from SemiAnalysis, Roon from OpenAI, Ivan Burazin from Daytona, and Theo Browne
- Read: “with angel investments from Dylan Patel from SemiAnalysis, Roon from OpenAI, Ivan Burazin from Daytona, and Theo Browne”
- Found word for word on its own site: hud.ai/blog/announcing-16m-series-a
- Also named by a curated directory
- Theo Browne
with angel investments from Dylan Patel from SemiAnalysis, Roon from OpenAI, Ivan Burazin from Daytona, and Theo Browne
- Read: “with angel investments from Dylan Patel from SemiAnalysis, Roon from OpenAI, Ivan Burazin from Daytona, and Theo Browne”
- Found word for word on its own site: hud.ai/blog/announcing-16m-series-a
- No other page or directory names it yet
Every figure is quoted from its own site, its accelerator or a funding announcement; a round's amount and lead appear only when its quote states them. Startup databases are never used as evidence. Checked 2026-10-11. How funding is checked.
Training methods
Methods HUD uses, offers or builds for, with public evidence: its own website says so, or two independent sites do.
- GRPO Group Relative Policy Optimization On its own website
“The fastest way to understand GRPO is to watch a model get better at something you can see. So: take 2048, wrap it as an environment, and train a small model to play it. The whole thing is about 100 lines. The RL parts (environment contract and training…”
hud.ai“…ready use hud.ai environments for agent evaluation and RL training. hud.ai environments powered Autonomy-10, which evaluated OpenAI Operator at launch. Every evaluation generates trajectory data that feeds directly into GRPO training pipelines. Publishing on hud.ai means frontier labs can run your environment without custom integration, separate hosting, or outreach. No other platform on this list puts your environment where model companies…”
hud.ai
Where HUD sits
Its domain on the map, live. Hover a logo for its name; click to open it. Open it on the full map
Latest from HUD on X
@hud_evals ↗Next: browse all environments. Entry from the RL Research daily scrape of public sources, 2026-11-05 snapshot.