Viral AI agent Instinct raises $1B Series C at a $10B valuation

Instinct, a viral AI assistant startup, has raised $1 billion in a Series C round at a $10 billion valuation from investors including Sequoia Capital, Benchmark Capital, and Coatue. This comes just one month after the company was valued at $2.5 billion, reflecting the intense fervor around a new class of consumer AI agents that can not only converse but actively perform tasks for users—such as booking travel, making purchases, paying bills, and managing appointments—using its own phone number and computer. Recent features include a "concierge" service that makes phone calls on behalf of users and a "trusted person network" that allows one person's agent to coordinate plans with friends' agents. Privacy concerns have been raised about the amount of personal information users must disclose, prompting Instinct to update its privacy policy. The startup now faces fresh competition from Meta's AI assistant Muse, which has topped U.S. app stores with millions of downloads through deep integration with Meta's social products, such as monitoring Instagram DMs and Facebook Groups. Instinct communicates via SMS and has no mobile app yet, nor has it shared user numbers. Founder Noah Shinn stated that the funding will help bring Instinct to more people and continue building the future of personal AI.

(Source：TechCrunch)