AI Agent Instinct Raises $1B, Reaching $10B Valuation
AI agent startup Instinct has raised a $1 billion Series C round just a month after its previous funding, pushing its valuation to $10 billion. The rapid growth highlights surging investor interest in AI agents capable of performing real-world tasks on users' behalf.
Instinct, the startup behind a viral AI assistant, has closed a $1 billion Series C funding round led by investors including Sequoia Capital, Benchmark Capital and Coatue, bringing its valuation to $10 billion. The raise comes just a month after Instinct was valued at $2.5 billion, and news of the fundraising effort was first reported earlier this month by The Information.
Launched as an invite-only service in August 2026, Instinct communicates with users via SMS and text messaging rather than a mobile app. Using its own phone number and computer, the AI agent can complete practical tasks on behalf of users, including booking travel and restaurant reservations, making purchases, paying bills, canceling subscriptions, ordering groceries, and handling tedious research. The company has recently added a "concierge" feature that can place phone calls to book appointments at businesses without online booking systems, along with a "trusted person network" that lets a user's agent coordinate plans with their friends' agents.
These expanding capabilities have raised privacy concerns, as users must share substantial personal information for the agent to function. Instinct's original privacy policy drew criticism for being overly broad in what data it could collect, prompting the company to revise it.
Despite its rapid, viral growth, Instinct now faces stiff competition from Meta's AI assistant, Muse, which offers comparable functionality plus deep integration with Meta's social platforms, such as monitoring Instagram DMs, Facebook Groups and Marketplace listings. Muse has climbed to the top of U.S. app store charts with millions of downloads, while Instinct has yet to launch its own app and has not disclosed user numbers or growth metrics. In a statement, Instinct founder Noah Shinn said the new funding would help expand access to the assistant and continue building what he called "the future of personal AI."
