US artificial intelligence startup Instinct announced on September 28 that it had completed a $1 billion Series C funding round, with Sequoia Capital, Benchmark Capital, and Coatue participating, bringing its post-money valuation to $10 billion.
Roughly one month earlier, a $250 million funding round had valued the company at $2.5 billion. An early photo of Instinct's office shows the company, whose team has now grown to 14 people.
What It Can Do for Users
Founded by Noah Zinn, Instinct develops an AI assistant for personal life. Users can send a text message or make a phone call to assign a task, and the assistant then uses its own virtual phone and computer to carry out the operation, such as planning a trip, buying groceries, booking a service, or canceling a subscription. It can also connect to a user's email, messaging, and other apps to handle follow-up matters based on existing information.
The product's focus is on completing multi-step tasks. Take restaurant reservations as an example: if a business does not accept online bookings, Instinct's newly launched phone-call service can call on the user's behalf. The company has also added a communication feature between assistants, allowing assistants of different users to coordinate schedules and share files. At present, the product is still mainly open to early users.
Product Draws Attention as Valuation Quadruples in a Month
After entering private testing this year, Instinct gradually attracted attention from early users in the tech industry because it can directly handle everyday matters such as reservations and shopping. In August, the company conducted a $250 million funding round at a valuation of about $2.5 billion, co-led by Index Ventures and Benchmark. The $1 billion Series C announced on September 28 pushed its valuation to $10 billion. Benchmark participated again, while Sequoia Capital and Coatue also joined the list of investors. Zinn said the funds will be used to let more people use Instinct and to continue developing the product. The company has not disclosed revenue or active user figures in this funding announcement, so what can be observed most directly at this stage is product iteration, the pace of fundraising, and the lineup of investors.
Meta Enters the Same Arena
Instinct's expansion faces a rival with stronger funding and a larger user base. This month, Meta launched the personal AI assistant Muse, which can likewise send emails, book travel, and operate web pages on behalf of users, and can be used through a standalone app or WhatsApp. Both sides have recently added features for making phone calls on users' behalf, and their product capabilities are converging. Meta can also promote Muse through its existing social platforms. Market research firm Sensor Tower estimates that, as of around September 25, Muse had been downloaded more than 3.4 million times since its launch, while Instinct is still expanding the scope of its early access.
This gives the funding round a clear product context: Instinct needs capital to support more users in using the assistant, to keep developing features, and to compete with Meta for the entry point to personal AI assistants. For Instinct, the key going forward is to steadily provide a broader range of users with the tasks that early users are willing to hand over to AI. The assistant needs access to personal information such as email, accounts, and location, and must also accurately judge when it can act on a user's behalf. Whether the product can maintain its task-completion capability and user trust after expanding access will directly affect the future development of this $10 billion company.