--- format: "aidr-story-markdown/v1" id: "73ee5debc75f2895dde05eac0f0a727379b8ca2bec4dcfc6f568a6db3cfb804d" canonical_url: "https://aidr.today/73ee5deb?lang=en" title: "Instinct Reaches $10B Valuation With 14 Employees in First Year" lang: "en" requested_lang: "en" available_langs: ["en","vi"] translation_fallback: null fallback_fields: [] published_at: "2026-09-28T14:31:08.000Z" category: "Funding" topics: ["agent","funding"] source_urls: ["https://marketbrief.now/startups/update-instinct-reaches-10b-valuation-with-14-employees-in-first-year-516d8c10","https://x.com/firstadopter/status/2104535381257437676","https://x.com/bespokeinvest/status/2104565133049749809","https://x.com/pitdesi/status/2104576701762351148","https://x.com/patrick_oshag/status/2104575947630362792","https://huggingnews.com/startups/update-instinct-reaches-10b-valuation-with-14-employees-in-first-year-516d8c10"] summary: "AI agent startup Instinct processes more than $1 billion in annualized transaction volume and grows its user base by 10% daily with zero marketing spend. The company manages this scale with only 14 employees, and about 50% of its processed transactions are for travel. Approximately 40% of users provide the agent with a personal credit card within three weeks, and those who share sensitive data exhibit an 80% retention rate. The company is less than a year old and recently raised $1 billion in a Series C round from Sequoia Capital, Benchmark Capital, and Coatue at a $10 billion valuation. This funding follows a $250 million raise at a $2.5 billion valuation just one month prior. Most of the new capital will support compute capacity, which doubles in demand every week and currently consumes 40% of CEO Noah Shinn's time to acquire." --- # Instinct Reaches $10B Valuation With 14 Employees in First Year > [Open the canonical story]() **Published:** 2026-09-28T14:31:08.000Z **Category:** Funding **Topics:** agent, funding ## Summary AI agent startup Instinct processes more than $1 billion in annualized transaction volume and grows its user base by 10% daily with zero marketing spend\. The company manages this scale with only 14 employees, and about 50% of its processed transactions are for travel\. Approximately 40% of users provide the agent with a personal credit card within three weeks, and those who share sensitive data exhibit an 80% retention rate\. The company is less than a year old and recently raised $1 billion in a Series C round from Sequoia Capital, Benchmark Capital, and Coatue at a $10 billion valuation\. This funding follows a $250 million raise at a $2\.5 billion valuation just one month prior\. Most of the new capital will support compute capacity, which doubles in demand every week and currently consumes 40% of CEO Noah Shinn's time to acquire\. ## Sources - [Story source]() - [Supporting source]() - [Supporting source]() - [Supporting source]() - [Supporting source]() - [Story source]()