Instinct’s AI agent startup lands $1B at a $10B valuation

The funding cements Instinct as a major AI assistant player even as it trails app-based rivals on visibility.

Instinct has closed a $1 billion Series C round at a $10 billion valuation, just a month after a prior raise that valued the AI assistant startup at $2.5 billion, with backers including Sequoia Capital, Benchmark Capital and Coatue. The company’s SMS-based consumer agent, launched in invite-only form in August 2026, can perform actions like booking travel, making purchases, paying bills and calling businesses through features such as its “concierge” and “trusted person network.” Instinct has faced criticism over the breadth of personal data access its service requires and an initial privacy policy that drew user concern, which the company has since revised. At the same time, Meta’s competing Muse assistant, tightly integrated into Meta’s social platforms and capable of tasks like scanning Instagram DMs and Facebook Groups, has surged to the top of U.S. app store charts with millions of downloads, while Instinct has not yet released a mobile app or disclosed usage metrics. Separately, edge AI chip startup SiMa.ai raised $150 million in a Series C round co-led by Fidelity Management & Research Company and Amplify at a $1.45 billion valuation, pushing its total funding past $500 million to expand its low-power hardware and software for running AI workloads directly on devices such as robots, drones and cameras.