Instinct raises $250M at a $2.5B valuation while still in private beta
One-year-old Instinct, an AI assistant users connect to their apps and drive by text and phone call, raised a $250M Series B co-led by Index Ventures and Benchmark, taking total funding to $350M at a $2.5B valuation. The round prices a private-beta product with no disclosed revenue and traction described only in usage anecdotes — road trips, groceries, cancelled subscriptions — with 23-year-old founder Noah Shinn running it under parent entity Spear Street Technology. Permissions and terms of service have drawn privacy and security criticism, a live risk for a consumer agent that needs deep account access to work at all.
Source: techcrunch.com ↗
They've told us they've planned cross-country road trips, bought weekly groceries and concert tickets, and cancelled hundreds of dollars of subscriptions.
Why this matters
- → A one-year-old private-beta startup just hit $2.5B valuation with no disclosed revenue
- → AI agent requires deep account access to work, raising live privacy and security risks
- → Early traction limited to anecdotes (road trips, groceries); no public metrics disclosed