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Cognition

The autonomous coding-agent lab that went from Devin's launch to a US$48B valuation in 18 months

Cognition (Cognition AI) is the San Francisco-based startup behind Devin, the first fully autonomous AI software engineer — founded in late 2023 by competitive-programming champions Scott Wu (CEO), Steven Hao and Walden Yan, holders of ten IOI gold medals collectively. It launched Devin in March 2024 alongside a US$21M Founders Fund-led seed, then raised a ~US$175M Series A at ~US$2B within weeks. A ~US$4B Series B led by Lux Capital and 8VC followed (March 2025), then a US$400M+ Series C at US$10.2B led by Founders Fund (September 2025), a US$1B+ Series D at US$26B led by Lux/General Catalyst/8VC (May 2026), and — announced 8 September 2026 — a US$2B Series E at US$48B led by new investors Andreessen Horowitz and Accel. The valuation nearly doubled from US$26B in four months, on the back of run-rate revenue rising from US$492M (May) to ~US$900M (September). Along the way Cognition acquired the Windsurf IDE (July 2025, adding ~US$82M ARR) and counts Mercedes-Benz, NASA JPL, Goldman Sachs, Citi, the U.S. Army and Navy among its customers.

Cognition logo
Founded
Late 2023 (San Francisco)
Headquarters
San Francisco (offices in New York, London, Singapore, Tokyo)
Founders
Scott Wu (CEO); Steven Hao (CTO); Walden Yan (CPO) — IOI gold medallists
Sector
Autonomous AI software engineering (Devin) + AI-native IDE (Windsurf)
Flagship products
Devin (autonomous agent); Windsurf IDE; Devin Desktop (2026)
Run-rate revenue
US$492M (May 2026) → ~US$900M (Sep 2026, per Reuters)
Total raised
~US$3.6B disclosed primary equity (Series B amount undisclosed)
Latest valuation
US$48B (Series E, Sep 2026)
Valuation arc
~$350M (2024) → ~$2B → ~$4B → $10.2B → $26B → $48B
Key customers
Mercedes-Benz, NASA JPL, Goldman Sachs, Citi, U.S. Army/Navy, Dell, Palantir
Rounds recorded
6
Total raised
$3.6B
cognition.com

Funding timeline

Every disclosed equity round for Cognition, newest to oldest, with lead and participating investors where reported. Data is stored oldest-first; the timeline is displayed latest-first.

  1. Sep 8, 2026

    Series E

    $2Bat $48B valuationLatest
    Led by Andreessen HorowitzLed by AccelFounders FundGeneral CatalystAvenirBenchmarkBessemerKleiner PerkinsGreylockLightspeedNvidiaT. Rowe PriceLux Capital8VC

    Led by new investors Andreessen Horowitz and Accel, with 30+ more firms participating. Run-rate revenue rose from US$492M to nearly US$900M since the May round; the valuation nearly doubled in four months. Notably a16z — a major Cursor backer — led a round in Cursor's direct competitor.

    Source ↗

  2. May 27, 2026

    Series D

    $1Bat $26B valuation
    Led by Lux CapitalLed by General CatalystLed by 8VCFounders FundElad GilAlpha WaveDefinition CapitalPositive SumAvenirVitruvianBain Capital VenturesRibbit CapitalAtreidesLayer Global

    Confirmed via Cognition's 'More Devins in More Places' post: >US$1B at a US$25B pre-money / US$26B post-money valuation. Alongside the round Cognition disclosed US$492M run-rate revenue with enterprise usage up over 10x since the start of 2026.

    Source ↗

  3. Sep 8, 2025

    Series C

    $400Mat $10.2B valuation
    Led by Founders FundLux Capital8VCNeoElad GilDefinition CapitalSwish VCBain Capital VenturesHanabi CapitalD1 Capital

    Confirmed via Scott Wu's blog; led by Founders Fund. Closed about two months after the Windsurf acquisition.

    Source ↗

  4. Mar 18, 2025

    Series B

    at $4B valuation
    Led by Lux CapitalLed by 8VCFounders FundKhosla VenturesElad GilConviction

    Reported March 2025 round at approximately a US$4B post-money valuation, jointly led by Lux Capital and 8VC. Amount undisclosed; the Lux + 8VC co-lead is later confirmed by Scott Wu's September 2025 post.

    Source ↗

  5. Apr 24, 2024

    Series A

    $175Mat $2B valuation
    Led by Founders Fund8VCKhosla VenturesConvictionElad Gil

    Reported by The Information/Bloomberg/Forbes weeks after Devin's launch; Founders Fund re-led. Cognition did not publish a separate blog post for this round.

    Source ↗

  6. Mar 12, 2024

    Seed

    $21M
    Led by Founders FundPatrick CollisonJohn CollisonElad GilSarah GuoChris ReEric GlymanKarim AtiyehErik BernhardssonTony XuFred Ehrsam

    Disclosed the same day Devin launched publicly, led by Founders Fund. The launch post described it as a 'Series A,' but later reporting re-classified it as the seed once the larger ~US$175M round closed within weeks. Valuation not disclosed.

    Source ↗

The story behind the numbers

From IOI gold medals to Devin's launch

The three co-founders — competitive-programming champions with ten IOI gold medals between them — launched Devin in March 2024 as 'the first AI software engineer,' an agent that plans, codes, debugs and deploys end to end inside its own IDE, shell and browser. The launch post carried a US$21M Founders Fund-led round and a who's-who of angels (the Collisons, Elad Gil, Sarah Guo), and within weeks a ~US$175M Series A at ~US$2B made it one of the fastest unicorns in AI history.

The revenue ramp that defies AI-coding skeptics

Devin's disclosed run-rate went from US$1M (September 2024) to US$73M (June 2025) — 73x in nine months. The July 2025 Windsurf acquisition added another ~US$82M ARR and an AI-native IDE; by the Series D (May 2026) company-wide run-rate hit US$492M, and by the Series E (September 2026) it neared US$900M. Cognition is reportedly targeting US$4–5B annualized revenue by end-2026, though it still operates at a loss with compute and server leasing estimated near US$800M a year.

Windsurf, and the parallel Google deal

Cognition's July 2025 acquisition of the Windsurf IDE (formerly Codeium) was the deal that folded a rival coding tool's enterprise base into Devin — while, about a week earlier, Google executed a separate ~US$2.4B 'reverse-acquihire' taking Windsurf's CEO and ~40 senior R&D staff to Google DeepMind. Cognition got the product, IP, ~US$82M ARR and ~200 employees; Google got the founding leadership. Two more acqui-hires followed in July 2026 (TierZero, then The Interaction Company's Poke).

Enterprise proof points as the moat

Cognition's named customers span the most demanding organizations: Mercedes-Benz (whose pilot cut a COBOL modernization from eight months to eight days), NASA JPL, Goldman Sachs, Citi, the U.S. Army and Navy, Dell, Palantir, Santander, Itaú. FedRAMP High In-Process status and a DOE Genesis Mission MOU underscore the federal/regulated wedge — the harder-to-replicate layer that distinguishes Devin from consumer coding tools.

A valuation priced as infrastructure

The Series E's US$48B against ~US$900M run-rate implies a ~53x multiple — the territory where investors price category dominance, not incremental growth. The round's lead is the subplot: a16z, a major Cursor backer that profited from its SpaceX sale, led a round in Cursor's direct competitor, signaling that AI coding is seen as far from winner-take-all and that autonomous agents have crossed from productivity tool to infrastructure layer.

More in the Atlas

Cognition's lead investors are profiled in the Investor Atlas when their firms join the directory. Track who backs every frontier AI round on the Funding Leaderboard.