AI assistant startup Instinct raises $350M at $2.5B valuation while still in private beta

Instinct, an AI assistant startup operating as Spear Street Technology and founded by 23-year-old Noah Shinn, has raised $350 million in total funding at a $2.5 billion valuation, with its Series B of $250 million co-led by Index Ventures and Benchmark. The company, roughly one year old, remains in private beta as of August 26, 2026, and has disclosed neither user numbers nor revenue. The product allows users to connect their apps and devices to an AI assistant they can interact with via text and calls to perform tasks like booking tickets, buying groceries, and cancelling subscriptions. Analysts note that the core technical differentiator is not the AI reasoning itself — widely available through frontier models — but the authorised access Instinct holds to users' third-party apps and accounts via OAuth permissions. This deep integration has drawn privacy concerns from users over broad permissions, while investors appear to view the same access as a durable competitive advantage that is difficult to replicate at scale.