# Halluminate Raises $30M Series A to Build Reinforcement Learning Gyms for Financial AI

**Author:** Zero G Talent
**Published:** 2026-11-06
**Category:** business-finance
**Tags:** yc-hiring, reinforcement learning, artificial intelligence, financial technology, software engineering, ai research

[Read on Zero G Talent](https://zerogtalent.com/blog/halluminate-raises-30m-series-a-to-build-reinforcement-learning-gyms-for-financial-ai)

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[Halluminate](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-companies/halluminate), a San Francisco AI data research lab building reinforcement learning environments and evaluation benchmarks for knowledge work, raised $30 million in Series A funding led by Oak HC/FT.

The financing, announced in October 2026, brought the startup's total capital raised to $38.5 million. Previous investor Y Combinator participated in the round alongside Orange Collective, FT Partners, Heavybit, and individual machine learning researchers from Anthropic, OpenAI, and Meta.

## Building Reinforcement Learning Sandboxes for High-Stakes Finance

Founded in 2024, Halluminate constructs verticalized evaluation platforms and simulated interactive reinforcement learning (RL) environments where frontier AI models can train on multi-step financial tasks. Rather than evaluating models on isolated coding challenges or generic knowledge tests, Halluminate builds sandboxes that replicate complex workflows in investment banking, private equity, and corporate finance. These tasks include financial modeling, Quality of Earnings analysis, document reconciliation, contract redlining, and client deck generation.

In August 2026, Halluminate released the Westworld Finance Diligence Bench, a benchmark comprising 88 tasks derived from anonymized private equity transaction files. Written and reviewed by practicing deal professionals, the benchmark tests whether AI agents can complete an end-to-end company acquisition due-diligence workflow. Tasks require agents to analyze multi-file data rooms, parse email threads, reconcile financial discrepancies, and generate transaction deliverables.

When Halluminate evaluated seven frontier model configurations against the benchmark, the highest-performing configuration achieved an average score of 51%. The evaluation highlighted common failure modes across multi-step workflows, such as models dropping context over long task horizons, using incorrect analytical methods, or relying on superseded deal terms. Halluminate turns these identified failure points into interactive training environments, allowing frontier labs to expose models to high-stress economic simulators and iterate logic without financial or compliance risk.

According to reporting by [Fortune](https://fortune.com/2026/10/01/halluminate-raises-30-million-series-a-oakhc-ft/), Halluminate counts four of the top five closed-source U.S. AI labs as paying customers. The nine-person startup reached a mid-eight-figure annualized revenue run rate within ten months of operation while remaining profitable.

## Leadership from Capital One Labs and Cornell

Halluminate was co-founded by CEO [Jerry Wu](https://zerogtalent.com/people/jerry-wu) and CTO [Wyatt Marshall](https://zerogtalent.com/people/wyatt-marshall).

[Jerry Wu](https://zerogtalent.com/people/jerry-wu) previously led product and research at Capital One Labs, where he launched an early financial services AI agent and co-authored three patents. He studied Computer Science and Economics at Cornell University, where he researched model quantization methods and served as vice president of the Cornell Consulting Group.

[Wyatt Marshall](https://zerogtalent.com/people/wyatt-marshall) earned a Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science and Philosophy from Cornell University in 2022. Prior to co-founding Halluminate, he worked as a data and software engineer at two early-stage startups, focusing on LLM evaluation frameworks and agent benchmarking tools.

## Scaling Engineering, Evals, and Operations in San Francisco

Halluminate is directing its Series A funding to expand its systems engineering and AI research teams, scale specialized computing infrastructure, and accelerate the development of financial simulation sandboxes.

The startup is currently hiring across engineering, research, and operational roles in San Francisco, with all positions listed as onsite. On the technical side, Halluminate is recruiting a [Member of Technical Staff - Platform Engineering](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/halluminate/member-of-technical-staff-platform-engineering-105111) ($200,000–$275,000) to build core systems, a [Data Platform Lead](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/halluminate/data-platform-lead-105116) ($200,000–$275,000) to lead data infrastructure, and a [Member of Technical Staff - Research / Post-Training](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/halluminate/member-of-technical-staff-research-post-training-105112) ($200,000–$275,000) to work on post-training RL infrastructure.

To expand its domain-specific evaluation capabilities, the company is seeking a [Member of Technical Staff - Finance Researcher](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/halluminate/member-of-technical-staff-finance-researcher-105114) ($180,000–$225,000) to design financial rubrics, alongside a [Member of Technical Staff - Forward Deployed Engineer](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/halluminate/member-of-technical-staff-forward-deployed-engineer-105117) ($200,000–$275,000).

Operational open roles include a [Chief of Staff](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/halluminate/chief-of-staff-105113) ($160,000–$210,000), a [Strategic Project Lead](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/halluminate/strategic-project-lead-105110) ($150,000–$225,000), a [People Platform Lead](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/halluminate/people-platform-lead-114494) ($220,000–$280,000), and a [Senior Recruiter](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/halluminate/senior-recruiter-108057) ($150,000–$200,000).

## Open Positions at Halluminate

| Role | Location | Work Mode | Salary Range |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [People Platform Lead](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/halluminate/people-platform-lead-114494) | San Francisco | Onsite | $220,000 – $280,000 |
| [Senior Recruiter](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/halluminate/senior-recruiter-108057) | San Francisco | Onsite | $150,000 – $200,000 |
| [Member of Technical Staff - Platform Engineering](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/halluminate/member-of-technical-staff-platform-engineering-105111) | San Francisco | Onsite | $200,000 – $275,000 |
| [Member of Technical Staff - Research / Post-Training](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/halluminate/member-of-technical-staff-research-post-training-105112) | San Francisco | Onsite | $200,000 – $275,000 |
| [People Platform Lead](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/halluminate/people-platform-lead-105115) | San Francisco | Onsite | $180,000 – $225,000 |
| [Data Platform Lead](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/halluminate/data-platform-lead-105116) | San Francisco | Onsite | $200,000 – $275,000 |
| [Member of Technical Staff - Finance Researcher](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/halluminate/member-of-technical-staff-finance-researcher-105114) | San Francisco | Onsite | $180,000 – $225,000 |
| [Member of Technical Staff - Forward Deployed Engineer](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/halluminate/member-of-technical-staff-forward-deployed-engineer-105117) | San Francisco | Onsite | $200,000 – $275,000 |
| [Chief of Staff](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/halluminate/chief-of-staff-105113) | San Francisco | Onsite | $160,000 – $210,000 |
| [Strategic Project Lead](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/halluminate/strategic-project-lead-105110) | San Francisco | Onsite | $150,000 – $225,000 |

[See all open roles at Halluminate](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-companies/halluminate)

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*Source: [Zero G Talent](https://zerogtalent.com), the job board for space, defense, AI, robotics and frontier-tech companies.*