Instinct
Ask an assistant by text or phone to help with an everyday errand.
Instinct Funding History
Instinct develops a personal AI assistant that users can reach by text message or phone call.
Company Overview
Founded 2025 · San Francisco, California, US
Official WebsiteInstinct Funding Timeline
Series C
$1B · $10B valuation
Instinct announced the round about a month after its previous financing, following the August invite-only launch of its personal AI agent.
Led by Sequoia Capital, Benchmark, Coatue.
Source · businesswire.com ↗Series A
US$75 million
The round backed an AI assistant designed to carry out tasks across users’ existing applications.
Led by Kleiner Perkins.
Source · forbes.com ↗Series B
US$250 million
TechCrunch reported that the round brought Instinct’s total funding to $350 million as its personal AI assistant began reaching users.
Led by Index Ventures, Benchmark.
Source · wsj.com ↗
Instinct Founding Team
Noah Shinn co-authored Reflexion, research on helping AI agents improve using feedback from earlier attempts. At Instinct, he turned to a more everyday interface for agents, building a personal assistant people could reach by text or phone.
Instinct Products
Instinct Company Development
Shop Pay Adds Checkout to Personal Requests
Instinct started with an assistant reachable by text or phone. Its integration with Shopify added a purchase step to the workflow: the assistant can help prepare an order, and the user can approve payment with Shop Pay.
Instinct Competitive Landscape
Personal Assistance Over the Phone
Instinct puts the assistant behind a phone number, letting users text or call it and delegate errands. ChatGPT and similar assistants center the interaction on a chat interface. The decision for routine personal tasks is whether the assistant is easy to reach in the channels a user already uses.
