Instinct has secured $1 billion in a new Series C funding round. The investment brings the company valuation to $10 billion. Sequoia Capital, Benchmark Capital and Coatue participated in the round. The financing arrives one month after the company announced a $250 million raise co-led by Index Ventures and Benchmark that valued the business at $2.5 billion.
The assistant manages tasks autonomously
Instinct, legally known as Spear Street Technology Inc., remains in early access. The company builds a personal artificial intelligence assistant designed to understand everyday consumer digital lives. Founder Noah Shinn stated the company builds Instinct to handle deeply personal daily nuances. The assistant manages tasks such as planning cross-country road trips, ordering weekly groceries, and canceling forgotten subscriptions. Users issue commands by typing a few words on a personal computer or speaking into a phone.
The system operates autonomously using its own virtual phone and computer capabilities. The startup states Instinct uses devices the same way humans do through a computer-use paradigm. The core model loads web pages and apps, interacting with them directly.
New features include white-glove phone concierge services
Instinct developed phone concierge capabilities over recent months. The white-glove service handles high-touch tasks involving phone calls and high-end bookings. These tasks include making restaurant reservations, scheduling doctor appointments, processing cancellations, and sorting out bills.
The assistant also coordinates plans with Instinct assistants used by trusted friends and coworkers. A trust network allows agents to exchange direct file sharing, PDFs, images, and spreadsheets. This mechanism organizes schedules and aligns preferences across groups. Enhanced location sharing via iMessage supports these features by recognizing user arrivals and offering location-based suggestions.
Instinct competes within a crowded AI agent market
Instinct develops its technology alongside roughly a dozen prominent artificial intelligence agent products and platforms. Direct startup rivals include Wajo, Ollie, and Poke. The broader competitive field features agentic versions of OpenAI Group PBC’s ChatGPT, SpaceXAI LLC’s Grok, and Apple Inc.’s Siri. Meta Platforms Inc. also built a personal agent and tests similar human-concierge voice call capabilities. Apple previously reintroduced Apple Intelligence as the foundation for Siri AI, a conversational agent accessing personal context and activating apps.
