Overview
- Instinct confirmed on Monday that it closed a $1 billion Series C at a $10 billion valuation with Sequoia, Benchmark and Coatue among the backers.
- The startup runs an invite-only personal AI you reach by SMS or phone that connects to users’ apps and devices and has been reported to exceed 100,000 users.
- Founder Noah Shinn says more than half of platform transactions are travel related and that Instinct is approaching about $1 billion in annualized transaction volume, a metric the company has not independently disclosed.
- Investors framed the raise as financing to expand compute capacity and infrastructure after users experienced delayed responses, and the company says the money will support scaling to handle growing load.
- Privacy and trust questions have followed the product because it needs broad access to email, messages and accounts; Instinct updated its privacy terms but has not announced any concrete plan to charge users while facing competition from Meta’s Muse.