It’s been just a month since AI assistant startup Instinct announced a funding round that values the company at $2.5 billion, but the company has already raised an additional $1 billion from investors including Sequoia Capital, Benchmark Capital, and Coatue, valuing the company at $10 billion.
News of the company’s fundraising efforts was reported by The Information earlier this month. In a press release on Monday, Instinct confirmed that this is a Series C round, a fairly rapid growth round for a startup that launched invite-only service in August 2026.
Quick Funding shows enthusiasm for a new class of consumer AI agents that can go beyond answering questions and having conversations and actually do things for users, such as making travel plans and restaurant reservations, making purchases, paying bills, canceling subscriptions, conducting tedious surveys, and ordering groceries.
When asked to perform a task, Instinct uses its own phone number and computer. The company recently rolled out other new features, including a “concierge,” which people can call to manage things like reservations at locations that don’t offer online reservations, and a “trusted people network,” where one’s Instinct agent can coordinate plans with friends’ agents.
However, these features come at a cost. Some users have questioned the amount of personal information they would have to disclose to an AI agent to access such features. The initial version of Instinct’s privacy policy was particularly concerning because of its overreach. The policy has since been updated.
Despite the rapid adoption of AI assistants, Instinct now faces new competition from Muse, Meta’s own AI assistant, which offers many similar features, as well as a system that can be deeply integrated with Meta’s social products. This means Muse can do much of what Instinct does, plus tasks like monitoring and summarizing Instagram DMs and Facebook groups, and monitoring Marketplace listings.
Features like these have propelled Muse to the top of US app stores and been downloaded millions of times. Instinct uses SMS and text messages to communicate with users, but it doesn’t have a mobile app yet. The company also doesn’t reveal user numbers or growth metrics, but it’s clear that investors are seeing what they like.
Instinct announces funding news from founder Noah Shinn declined to provide an interview, but shared a statement attributed to him: “We’re building Instinct to be the best personal agent capable of handling the very personal nuances of everyday life. This funding will help us bring Instinct to more people and continue building the future of personal AI. These are exciting and creative times, and we’re just getting started.”
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