Ollama lands $65M Series B for local AI model tool, hits 9M users

Ollama, the open source tool that lets developers run open-weight AI models on their own laptops and desktops, has raised a $65 million Series B funding round led by Theory Venture. The round brings the company’s total funding to $80 million, following a $15 million Series A led by Benchmark Capital in early 2026.

The company now serves nearly 9 million users, according to TechCrunch reporting, and has amassed 176,000 stars and roughly 17,000 forks on GitHub. Ollama’s CEO and founder Jeff Morgan said the new capital will be used to expand the team and scale infrastructure for its growing user base.

Local AI momentum grows among developers

Ollama simplifies running large language models offline. Developers download a single binary, pull models from a registry, and start experimenting without cloud API costs or data leaving their machines. The tool supports models from Meta’s Llama family, Mistral, Gemma, and others with open-weight licenses.

• Nearly 9 million developers have used Ollama, per the company.
• GitHub adoption: 176,000 stars and 17,000 forks as of July 2026.
• Key investors: Theory Venture (Series B lead) and Benchmark Capital (Series A lead).
• CEO Jeff Morgan confirmed the Series B details in an interview with TechCrunch.

Privacy and control drive demand

The surge in Ollama’s usage reflects a broader shift among developers who want privacy, latency control, and predictable costs with local AI. Running models on personal hardware eliminates data sent to cloud providers, a concern that has become central as enterprises adopt stricter data governance policies.

Ollama competes indirectly with providers like Anthropic and OpenAI, which sell cloud API access, but occupies a distinct niche: tooling for developers who want to experiment with open models on local machines without complex setup. The company does not host models or manage training infrastructure. Its value is in lowering the friction to run existing open-weight models.

What comes next: hiring and scaling

Morgan told TechCrunch the Series B will fund hiring across engineering, developer relations, and support. Ollama’s roadmap includes improving model performance on consumer hardware, expanding the model registry, and adding features that help teams collaborate on local model projects.

The funding round closed in early July 2026. Theory Venture, which led the round, has not disclosed its specific stake. Ollama remains headquartered in the United States and has not shared plans for international expansion.