THE ESSENTIALS IN 30 SECONDS
- Sequoia led the $150 million Series C, which values Serval at $3 billion; Conviction and Headline joined existing backers.
- Serval says annual recurring revenue has doubled every quarter since its $75 million Series B in December, without giving dollar figures.
- The company plans to hire more than 500 people in 12 months, including over 100 Automation Engineers for a new services arm, ProServal.
Serval, a San Francisco company building AI software for IT and enterprise service management, announced on October 29 that it has raised a $150 million Series C at a $3 billion valuation. Sequoia led the round. Fortune describes the valuation as post-money and puts Serval's total funding at $277 million.
A third round in twelve months
The raise follows a $75 million Series B in December 2025, also led by Sequoia, which valued the company at $1 billion. Existing investors Elad Gil, Evantic, First Round, General Catalyst and Redpoint returned, while Conviction and Headline came in as new backers, according to the company's announcement.
Serval says its annual recurring revenue has doubled every quarter since the Series B, but it has not disclosed revenue figures. It also says two Fortune 20 companies signed on in the past six months, without naming them. Customers it does name include Fox Corporation, WPP, Live Nation and Ramp, and it claims an automotive manufacturer replaced ServiceNow across the company in 45 days. None of these claims has been independently verified.
How the product works
At the centre of the pitch is Catalyst, an automation agent that lets staff in IT, security, HR, finance or legal describe a process in natural language. AI agents then turn those requirements into code-based, deterministic workflows that run under administrator-defined permissions and approvals. Fortune reports that automations are tested in a separate environment with access controls and audit logs before being published to a second agent used by employees. Catalyst sits inside a broader service management platform that also acts as a system of record for requests, assets and changes, which Serval openly positions as a ServiceNow replacement.
Hiring plans and the incumbent's reply
Co-founders Jake Stauch (CEO) and Alex McLeod (CTO) met at Verkada. Fortune reports headcount grew from about 20 in January to roughly 200 today. Serval says it will hire more than 500 people over the next year, including over 100 Automation Engineers for ProServal, a new professional services unit; about half are to be recent graduates who go through a four-week training programme.
The announcement landed in a difficult week for ServiceNow, whose shares fell sharply after its third-quarter results missed earnings expectations. A ServiceNow executive told Fortune that trusted data, workflows and governance are hard for a startup to replicate. ServiceNow sponsors a Fortune event, which the publication disclosed.