Instinct, a 14-person agent startup with no app, raises $1B at ~$10B valuation
On Sept. 28, personal-agent startup Instinct announced a $1B Series C co-led by Sequoia, Benchmark and Coatue, lifting its valuation from $2.5B to roughly $10B in about a month. The company has 14 employees, no revenue and no phone app: users reach the agent only by text, phone and email, and it earns commissions on bookings such as hotels, flight changes and price comparisons. The founder says about 40% of users link a credit card after roughly three weeks and about 80% of those who link a sensitive asset stay, though none of the figures are independently audited.
If personal agents become a mainstream category, Instinct is a test of whether trust and switching costs — rather than network effects — can hold ground against the platforms that own the messaging and payment pipes.