H Company

H Company, also known simply as H, is a French artificial-intelligence startup focused on action-oriented AI agents for enterprise automation and productivity. The company develops models and software intended to interact directly with digital environments rather than merely generate text or recommendations. Its computer-use systems are designed to interpret screens, navigate websites and desktop applications, click controls, enter information, and complete multistep workflows across software that may not expose a dedicated automation interface. H was founded in Paris in 2023 by Laurent Sifre, Charles Kantor, and three former DeepMind researchers: Daan Wiestra, Karl Tuyls, and Julien Perollat. The founding team positioned the company around agentic AI, a segment of artificial intelligence in which models are expected to plan and carry out sequences of actions toward a goal. This focus places H at the intersection of large language models, vision-language models, browser automation, enterprise software, and robotic-process-automation technologies. The company attracted substantial attention in May 2024 when it announced a $220 million seed financing round. At the time, the financing was described as the largest European AI seed round. Participants included prominent United States technology investors and institutions such as Eric Schmidt and Amazon, alongside Accel, Bpifrance, UiPath, Eurazeo, Xavier Niel, Yuri Milner, Bernard Arnault, and Samsung. The scale of the financing gave H the resources to pursue model development, product commercialization, and international expansion at an unusually early stage. H released Runner H in November 2024 as an agentic application-programming interface combining a large language model with a smaller, approximately two-billion-parameter vision-language model. The product represented the company’s effort to package computer-use capabilities for developers and enterprise applications. In 2025, H broadened its technical portfolio through the acquisition of Mithril Security, additional agent-model releases, open-source work, and a strategic shift toward deploying engineering teams alongside customers. Gautier Cloix, previously associated with Palantir France, became chief executive in June 2025, replacing Charles Kantor in that role. The company’s open-source initiatives included Holo-1, a three-billion-parameter model, and Surfer-H-CLI, a web-oriented Chrome agent introduced in July 2025. Surfer-H-CLI was designed to search, scroll, click, and type in a browser and could be controlled by different vision-language models. H reported a 92.2% result on the WebVoyager benchmark when the agent was paired with Holo-1, although benchmark performance does not by itself establish equivalent reliability in production environments. H’s business proposition is aimed at organizations with repetitive, screen-based work spanning several applications, including data entry, reconciliation, research, and other operational processes. Its stated customer base includes FDJ United, the French national lottery group. The company operates from Paris and has offices in London and New York. In 2026, it released Holo 3, a newer generation of computer-use models intended to operate across web pages, desktop software, and other graphical user interfaces. Holo 3 was presented as improving the ability of AI agents to understand visible interfaces and execute complex workflows, with reported results on the OSWorld-Verified benchmark that exceeded certain contemporary proprietary systems on that test. H remains a private, venture-backed company and its long-term position depends on the reliability, security, cost, and governance of autonomous enterprise agents.

H Company was established in Paris in 2023 by Laurent Sifre, Charles Kantor, Daan Wiestra, Karl Tuyls, and Julien Perollat. Sifre, Kantor, and the other founders developed a company centered on agentic artificial intelligence: systems that can interpret an objective, reason through a sequence of steps, and act inside software environments. The company’s distinctive emphasis was computer use, allowing an AI model to operate websites, desktop applications, and other graphical interfaces in a manner analogous to a human user. H’s early development was supported by a major financing event in May 2024. The company raised $220 million in seed funding from a group that included Eric Schmidt, Amazon, Accel, Bpifrance, UiPath, Eurazeo, Xavier Niel, Yuri Milner, Bernard Arnault, and Samsung. The round was widely characterized as the largest European AI seed financing at the time. It gave H substantial capital for research, hiring, infrastructure, and commercialization while the market was rapidly expanding around generative AI and autonomous agents. The founding group changed later in 2024. Daan Wiestra, Karl Tuyls, and Julien Perollat left H in August following reported operational disagreements. In November, H launched Runner H, its first agentic API. Runner H combined a large language model with a reduced vision-language model of roughly two billion parameters, reflecting an effort to make computer-use capabilities available through an application interface rather than only as an internal research demonstration. In 2025, H expanded its technology and operating model. It acquired Mithril Security in May and broadened its agentic-model offering in June. Gautier Cloix, formerly associated with Palantir France, became president and chief executive in June, replacing Charles Kantor. Under Cloix, the company emphasized a forward-deployed-engineer approach in which technical staff would work closely with customers to adapt AI agents to operational environments. This approach addressed a central challenge of enterprise automation: workflows often involve legacy software, inconsistent interfaces, permissions, exception handling, and sector-specific procedures. H also pursued open-source distribution. In June 2025 it open-sourced Holo-1, a model with approximately three billion parameters. The following month, the company introduced Surfer-H-CLI, a web-native Chrome agent able to search, scroll, click, and type. The tool was designed to work with visual language models and was reported to achieve 92.2% accuracy on the WebVoyager benchmark when paired with Holo-1. The company continued its model development with Holo 3, released in 2026. Holo 3 was presented as a family of computer-use models that could understand front-end environments and execute actions across webpages, desktop applications, and other graphical interfaces. H reported an approximately 78.9% result on OSWorld-Verified, claiming performance above certain contemporary proprietary models on that benchmark at a substantially lower inference cost. These claims are benchmark-specific and should not be treated as a complete measure of production reliability. H operates from Paris and maintains offices in London and New York. Its commercial focus is enterprise productivity and workflow automation, with FDJ United identified among its customers. The company’s long-term prospects depend on whether computer-use agents can operate reliably and securely across heterogeneous software systems, while meeting requirements for privacy, auditability, human oversight, and cost control.

1. 2026Holo 3 is released

   H launches a new generation of computer-use models for navigating graphical interfaces and completing multistep tasks.

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2. 2025Mithril Security acquisition

   H Company acquires Mithril Security as it expands its agentic-AI capabilities.

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3. 2025Leadership transition and strategic pivot

   Gautier Cloix becomes chief executive and the company places greater emphasis on forward-deployed engineering.

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4. 2025Surfer-H-CLI and Holo-1 open-source releases

   H releases Holo-1 and introduces Surfer-H-CLI for browser-based automation.

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5. 2024H closes a $220 million seed round

   The company raises a seed round described at the time as the largest European AI seed financing.

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6. 2024Runner H launches

   H introduces its first agentic API, combining language and vision-language models for software interaction.

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7. 2023H Company is founded in Paris

   Laurent Sifre, Charles Kantor, Daan Wiestra, Karl Tuyls, and Julien Perollat establish H Company to develop action-oriented enterprise AI agents.

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H Company positions itself as an enterprise-agent developer focused on AI systems that can see and operate software interfaces. Rather than limiting automation to structured APIs or text-based assistance, it emphasizes computer-use agents capable of carrying out actions in the same interfaces used by human workers.

• Runner HAgentic AI API2024

  Runner H was H Company’s first agentic API, launched in November 2024. It combined a large language model with a smaller vision-language model of approximately two billion parameters. The product was intended to support agents that could interpret digital interfaces and perform actions rather than simply return generated text. Its API orientation made the system suitable for integration into enterprise automation workflows and developer applications.

• Holo-1Open-source vision-language model2025

  Holo-1 is an approximately three-billion-parameter model released as an open-source component of H Company’s computer-use strategy. It was designed to help agents understand visual interfaces and was used with Surfer-H-CLI in browser automation experiments. H reported that the combination achieved 92.2% on the WebVoyager benchmark, a result that reflects a particular evaluation setup rather than a guarantee of performance across all enterprise environments.

• Surfer-H-CLIBrowser automation agent2025

  Surfer-H-CLI is an open-source, web-native Chrome agent introduced in July 2025. It is designed to perform browser actions including searching, scrolling, clicking, and typing on behalf of a user or an AI system. The agent can be controlled by visual-language models, making it a practical demonstration of H’s computer-use approach and a potential building block for browser-based enterprise automation.

• Holo 3Computer-use AI model family2026

  Holo 3 is a 2026 generation of H Company’s computer-use models. It is intended to interpret webpages, desktop applications, and other graphical user interfaces and then carry out actions such as clicking, typing, and navigation across multistep tasks. H presented the release as an advance in agentic automation and reported an approximately 78.9% result on OSWorld-Verified, while also claiming lower inference costs than certain proprietary systems on that evaluation.

• 2025Acquire Mithril SecurityM&A

  H Company sought to expand its technical capabilities as it broadened its agentic-model portfolio.

  What changed. The company acquired Mithril Security in May 2025.

  Aftermath. The acquisition was followed by a wider offering of agentic models and tools.

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• 2025Adopt a forward-deployed-engineering modelStrategy

  Enterprise computer-use automation often requires adaptation to customer-specific software, processes, permissions, and exceptions.

  What changed. Following Gautier Cloix’s appointment as chief executive, H emphasized deploying engineers directly alongside customers.

  Aftermath. The strategy was intended to connect model development more closely with real-world enterprise implementation.

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• 2025Open-source browser automation and model componentsProduct launch

  H sought to make its computer-use approach more accessible to developers and to demonstrate performance in browser-based tasks.

  What changed. The company open-sourced Holo-1 and released Surfer-H-CLI for Chrome-based web automation.

  Aftermath. H reported a 92.2% WebVoyager result for the combined system.

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• 2026H Company releases Holo 3

  H Company released Holo 3, a new generation of computer-use models intended to navigate graphical interfaces and complete multistep digital workflows.

  Product launchProduct generation
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• 2025H Company acquires Mithril Security

  H Company acquired Mithril Security as part of its effort to expand its capabilities in AI security and agentic-model development.

  M&A
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• 2025Gautier Cloix becomes H Company chief executive

  Gautier Cloix replaced Charles Kantor as chief executive and was associated with a strategic emphasis on forward-deployed engineering and customer implementation.

  Leadership change
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• 2025H introduces Surfer-H-CLI

  H released Surfer-H-CLI, an open-source Chrome agent designed to perform browser actions such as searching, scrolling, clicking, and typing.

  Product launch
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• 2024H Company announces $220 million seed financing

  H Company closed a $220 million seed round led or supported by prominent international technology investors. The financing was described as the largest European AI seed round at the time.

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• 2024Three co-founders leave H Company amid operational disagreements

  Daan Wiestra, Karl Tuyls, and Julien Perollat reportedly departed H Company in August 2024 following operational disagreements.

  Leadership changeOther
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• 2024H launches Runner H

  The company introduced Runner H, an agentic API combining a large language model with a smaller vision-language model for computer-use applications.

  Product launch
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1. H (company)
2. H Company official website