Instinct has raised $1 billion in its latest funding round. The Series C round was supported by Sequoia Capital, Benchmark Capital, and Coatue. This San Francisco-based company develops a personal agent for daily life. Founder Noah Shin stated that the funds will help spread Instinct to a larger number of people.
This investment followed previous funding for the young AI company. Instinct remains in early access after launching closed testing in August 2026. The company gained attention for its ability to perform tasks beyond traditional chatbot interactions. Users can contact Instinct via text messages or calls to request actions.
Instinct is designed to function using a user's own phone and computer. This allows the agent to perform tasks on various websites, during calls, and within digital services. For example, the platform can plan a cross-country road trip, order weekly groceries, or schedule appointments.
The Concierge feature extends these capabilities for more complex requests. This service can make phone calls and handle bookings that require special attention. For instance, Instinct Concierge can contact restaurants without online reservations. It can also request cancellation slots from dentists or resolve cable TV billing issues.
The company focuses these features on practical task completion to reduce the amount of manual work required by users. Instinct has also implemented a location sharing feature via iMessage. This feature recognizes when users arrive at a specific location and suggests relevant recommendations based on their preferences.
Instinct introduced a Trusted Network for coordinating tasks between different users. This feature uses the company's proprietary Instinct-to-Instinct communication protocol. A user's assistant can communicate directly with another Instinct agent, allowing agents to coordinate plans on behalf of their users. The network also supports direct file exchange between Instinct agents, including PDFs, images, and spreadsheets. The company noted that these capabilities can simplify human interaction, allowing users to delegate some planning tasks instead of managing every detail themselves.
Instinct continues to develop its platform with an emphasis on privacy. The system includes isolated sandboxes and short-term local credentials. Identity-signed tool execution is also integrated into the platform. These measures are designed to control how the agent accesses external tools.
The new funding provides Instinct with additional resources for product development and expansion. The company intends to increase its market presence while continuously improving its personal AI capabilities. Instinct is entering the growing market focused on autonomous AI agents. Such systems are designed to perform tasks, not just provide information, and the company maintains a personal approach to agentic AI, focusing on multi-step or externally interacting daily activities.
Instinct's development occurs amid growing interest in AI agents capable of conducting transactions. These systems have the potential to change how consumers interact with digital services. However, personal AI agents require access to users' sensitive information. Therefore, Instinct has continued to develop security and privacy features in parallel with automation capabilities. The company has not publicly disclosed detailed data on user numbers or growth metrics. Currently, user interaction is conducted via SMS rather than a dedicated mobile application. Instinct's latest funding secures significant capital for the next stage.