Instinct, a San Francisco-based startup founded in 2025 by 23-year-old Noah Shinn, has emerged as an invite-only personal AI assistant that users access by text or phone. Multiple reports say the company closed a $1 billion Series C on September 28 at a $10 billion valuation, roughly four times the $2.5 billion price assigned about a month earlier. Investors named across coverage include Sequoia Capital, Benchmark Capital and Coatue.
The product is positioned as an agentic AI that does real tasks on behalf of users—booking restaurants, arranging travel, ordering groceries, paying bills and canceling subscriptions—without a mobile app; interaction happens over SMS or calls. Instinct crossed the 100,000-user mark shortly after its August invite-only launch, but has not disclosed a revenue model. That absence of monetization and the company’s limited access remain salient given the valuation.
Sources diverge on total capital raised: one report puts Instinct’s cumulative funding at roughly $1.35 billion, while other accounts state total funding closer to $350 million. Reports also flag operational constraints: as usage grows the service has delivered delayed responses, and the $1 billion raise is described as a bet that capital can expand compute and infrastructure before quality or reputation are harmed.