23-year-old's 14-person AI agent startup Instinct hits $10B valuation
Citing Reuters, 36Kr reports that Instinct, the personal AI assistant startup founded by 23-year-old Noah Shinn, announced a $1 billion funding round on September 28 with investors including Sequoia Capital, Benchmark and Coatue, at a reported valuation of about $10 billion — roughly 4x its $25 billion... valuation of $2.5 billion in late August — with a team of just 14 people. Rather than a standalone app, users reach the assistant by text or phone call to book flights, buy household goods, cancel subscriptions or contact merchants, and a group-chat agent feature has been opened to some users. Shinn has said annualized transaction volume on the platform is approaching $1 billion, more than half travel-related, though he did not explain the calculation and the figure is self-reported. The Instinct Selections recommendation feature launched in late September drew complaints after suggesting products such as luggage without a shopping request, leaving monetization, privacy and reliability still unproven.
If agents can handle bookings and purchases through messaging instead of apps, they could shift who controls consumer traffic and how commerce discovery works.