GoKawiilMercor, a popular AI recruiting startup, has confirmed a security incident linked to a supply chain attack involving the open-source project LiteLLM.
The AI startup told TechCrunch on Tuesday that it was “one of thousands of companies” affected by a recent compromise of LiteLLM’s project, which was linked to a hacking group called TeamPCP. Confirmation of the incident comes as extortion hacking group Lapsus$ claimed it had targeted Mercor and gained access to its data.
It’s not immediately clear how the Lapsus$ gang obtained the stolen data from Mercor as part of TeamPCP’s cyberattack.
Founded in 2023, Mercor works with companies including OpenAI and Anthropic to train AI models by contracting specialized domain experts such as scientists, doctors, and lawyers from markets including India. The startup says it facilitates more than $2 million in daily payouts and was valued at $10 billion following a $350 million Series C round led by Felicis Ventures in October 2025.
Mercor spokesperson Heidi Hagberg confirmed to TechCrunch that the company had “moved promptly” to contain and remediate the security incident.
“We are conducting a thorough investigation supported by leading third-party forensics experts,” said Hagberg. “We will continue to communicate with our customers and contractors directly as appropriate and devote the resources necessary to resolving the matter as soon as possible.”
Earlier, Lapsus$ claimed responsibility for the apparent data breach on its leak site and shared a sample of data allegedly taken from Mercor, which TechCrunch reviewed. The sample included material referencing Slack data and what appeared to be ticketing data, as well as two videos purportedly showing conversations between Mercor’s AI systems and contractors on its platform.
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