AI agent firm Instinct raises $1 billion in latest funding round

Sept 28 (Reuters) - AI firm ‌Instinct said ​on ​Monday it raised $1 billion in its latest funding round, quadrupling its valuation to $10 billion, driven by soaring interest ‌in agentic AI.

The round drew investments from Sequoia Capital, ⁠Benchmark Capital and Coatue. The startup's founder, Noah Shinn, told the Wall Street ‌Journal last month that ‌Instinct had raised $250 million at a $2.5 billion valuation.

Instinct is developing a personal agent that can perform day-to-day tasks autonomously. It ​was founded in 2025 by Shinn, who previously worked at Sierra, an AI customer service startup run by Salesforce co-CEO ⁠Bret Taylor.

Agentic AI is attracting strong interest from venture capitalists, who are betting that ​agents could eventually automate entire workflows traditionally handled by employees or software applications.

The firm says its users can ​communicate with Instinct through text or ‌calls and ask it to handle tasks such as planning trips, buying groceries, booking tickets and ⁠cancelling subscriptions.

"This funding helps us bring Instinct to more people and continue building the future of personal AI," Shinn said in a statement.

Instinct ⁠is now expanding beyond digital tasks with a concierge offering that can also ​call businesses on a user's behalf to make bookings, the firm said.

The shift toward agentic commerce has also gained traction as consumers are increasingly leaning ‌on AI platforms to complete transactions rather than using them merely for recommendations.

The firm said on ‌Monday its privacy features, including isolated sandboxes and short-lived local credentials, ⁠are continually being improved, ‌while a new active ​detection system helps catch subtle, nuanced hallucinations in agents' responses.

(Reporting by Utkarsh Shetti in Bengaluru; Editing by ‌Shinjini Ganguli)

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