Anthropic acquires Humanloop’s core team in strategic move to strengthen enterprise AI capabilities

Anthropic has acquired the co-founders and most of the team behind Humanloop, a platform specializing in prompt management, large language model evaluation, and AI observability, as part of a strategic move to strengthen its enterprise AI offerings. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the transaction follows the acqui-hire model increasingly common in the tech industry amid intense competition for top AI talent. Humanloop’s three co-founders—CEO Raza Habib, CTO Peter Hayes, and CPO Jordan Burgess—have joined Anthropic, along with approximately a dozen engineers and researchers. While Anthropic confirmed it did not acquire Humanloop’s assets or intellectual property, the real value lies in the team’s deep expertise. The engineers and product leaders bring hands-on experience in building tools that enable enterprises to deploy AI safely and reliably at scale—capabilities critical for mission-critical applications. Brad Abrams, API product lead at Anthropic, highlighted the strategic fit: “Their proven experience in AI tooling and evaluation will be invaluable as we continue to advance our work in AI safety and building useful AI systems.” This move comes as Anthropic accelerates its enterprise growth, particularly in agentic AI and code generation. In a competitive landscape where model performance alone isn’t enough, enhancing its tooling ecosystem could help Anthropic differentiate itself from rivals like OpenAI and Google DeepMind—especially in terms of enterprise readiness and compliance. Humanloop, founded in 2020 as a spinout from University College London, gained traction through programs like Y Combinator and the Fuse Incubator. It raised $7.91 million in seed funding from Y Combinator and Index Ventures, according to PitchBook. The platform earned a reputation for helping companies like Duolingo, Gusto, and Vanta build, test, and refine robust AI applications. Last month, Humanloop informed customers it would be shutting down in preparation for the acquisition, signaling the transition was underway. The timing aligns with Anthropic’s recent enterprise advances, including expanded context windows and new capabilities tailored for business use. Earlier this week, Anthropic secured a deal with the U.S. government’s central purchasing agency to offer its AI services to federal agencies across executive, judicial, and legislative branches at just $1 per agency for the first year—directly challenging OpenAI’s similar pricing. Both government and enterprise clients demand strong evaluation, monitoring, and compliance features—precisely the strengths Humanloop brought to the table. The acquisition also fits Anthropic’s public commitment to being a “safety-first” AI company. Humanloop’s focus on continuous performance tracking, safety guardrails, and bias detection complements Anthropic’s research-driven approach to responsible AI. “From our earliest days, we’ve been focused on creating tools that help developers build AI applications safely and effectively,” said Raza Habib, former CEO of Humanloop, in a statement. “Anthropic’s commitment to AI safety research and responsible AI development perfectly aligns with our vision.”