Mercurya 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 the recent compromise of LiteLLM’s project, which was linked to a hacking group called TeamPCP. The incident was confirmed when the extortion hacking group Lapsus$ claimed to have targeted Mercer and accessed its data.

It was not immediately clear how the Lapsus$ gang obtained the data stolen from Mercer as part of Team PCP’s cyberattack.

Founded in 2023, Mercor works with companies including OpenAI and Anthropic to train AI models by contracting expert domain experts such as scientists, doctors and lawyers from markets including India. The startup says it facilitates more than $2 million in daily payments and was valued at $10 billion in October 2025 after a $350 million Series C round led by Felicis Ventures.

Mercer spokeswoman Heidi Hagberg confirmed to TechCrunch that the company “moved immediately” to contain and remediate the security incident.

“We are conducting a thorough investigation with the assistance of third-party forensic experts,” Hagberg said. “We will continue to communicate directly with our customers and contractors and devote the necessary resources to resolve this matter as quickly as possible.”

Earlier, Lapsus$ claimed responsibility for an apparent data breach on its leak site and shared a sample of data allegedly taken from Mercor, which was reviewed by TechCrunch. The sample includes content referencing Slack data and ticketing data, as well as two videos that allegedly show interactions between Merck’s AI systems and contractors on its platform.

Hagberg declined to answer follow-up questions about whether the incident was connected to Lapsus$’s claims, or whether any customer or contractor data was accessed, misused.

LiteLLM’s compromise originally came to light last week after malicious code was discovered in a package associated with the Y Combinator-backed startup’s open-source project. While the malicious code was identified and removed within hours, the incident drew scrutiny due to LiteLLM’s widespread use around the Internet, with the library being downloaded millions of times per day, according to security firm Snyk. The incident also prompted LiteLLM to make changes to its compliance process, including moving from controversial startup Delve to Vanta for compliance certifications.

It’s not yet clear how many companies were affected by the LiteLLM-related incident or if any data was released, as the investigation continues.