Instinct, the viral AI assistant startup, has raised $1 billion in a Series C round at a $10 billion valuation, just one month after its previous fundraise valued the company at $2.5 billion. The round includes Sequoia Capital, Benchmark Capital, and Coatue, and reflects the surging investor interest in a new class of consumer AI agents that don't just chat but complete tasks for users.
The service, which launched in invite-only form in August 2026, can handle travel bookings, restaurant reservations, purchases, bill payments, subscription cancellations, research, and grocery orders. It operates using its own phone number and computer, and recently added a "concierge" feature for making phone calls and a "trusted person network" that lets agents coordinate with friends' agents. However, some users have raised privacy concerns about how much personal data these capabilities require; Instinct's initial privacy policy was criticized for overreach and has since been updated.
Instinct now faces fresh competition from Meta's Muse, an AI assistant that offers similar features plus deep integration with Meta's social products, such as monitoring Instagram DMs and Facebook Groups. Muse has been downloaded millions of times and reached the top of U.S. app stores. Instinct, which communicates via SMS and texting, does not yet have a mobile app and has not shared user numbers or growth metrics, leaving investors to bet on its potential rather than proven scale.