Cognition AI Secures $400M Funding, Reaching $10.2B Valuation Amid AI Software Engineering Boom

Cognition AI defies turbulence with a $400M raise at $10.2B valuation | TechCrunch

Cognition AI, the startup behind AI coding agent Devin, has hit a $10.2 billion valuation after raising $400 million, marking a jump from the company's $4 billion valuation earlier this year, reports Bloomberg. Founders Fund, the Peter Thiel-backed VC, led Cognition's latest round, with participation from existing investors like Lux Capital, Joe Lonsdale's 8VC, Elad Gil, Definition Capital and Swish Ventures. In July, Cognition acquired AI coding startup Windsurf, just days after Google poached the startup's CEO, co-founder, and research leads. The raise comes after serious growth for Cognition's core product. The startup's annual recurring revenue from Devin has climbed to $73 million in June, up from $1 million in September 2024. Net burn has remained under $20 million since its founding two years ago, per Bloomberg. At the same time, the company has built a reputation for placing strict demands on its workers. Last month, Cognition laid off 30 staffers and offered buyouts to the remaining 200 employees, offering them a way out of the expectation to work 80-hour, six-day weeks.

Cognition valued at $10.2 billion two months after Windsurf purchase

Cognition, the artificial intelligence startup that acquired Windsurf in July, said on Monday that it closed a $400 million funding round at valuation of $10.2 billion, which includes the fresh capital. The developer of an AI software engineer called Devin, Cognition was thrust into the spotlight two months ago, when it jumped in to buy Windsurf, days after that startup's founders and top researchers left to join Google. Windsurf had been in talks with OpenAI about a multibillion-dollar acquisition, but those talks fell apart, leading to the Google deal, which included a $2.4 billion payout from the search giant for licensing fees and compensation. "We'll continue to invest significantly in both Devin and Windsurf, and our customers are already seeing how powerful the combination is together," Cognition CEO Scott Wu wrote in Monday's blog post. The deal puts cognition into the $10 billion club, joining a handful of other AI startups, most notably OpenAI and Anthropic. Last week, Bret Taylor's AI startup Sierra Raised $350 million at a $10 billion valuation. Peter Thiel's Founders Fund led Cognition's latest funding round, with additional funding coming from Lux Capital, 8VC and Bain Capital Ventures. Since acquiring Windsurf, Cognition's annual recurring revenue, or ARR, has more than doubled, Wu said. Growth has also accelerated, he added, as the combined enterprise ARR is up more than 30% following the acquisition. Jeff Wang, who became CEO at Windsurf after the founders left for Google, wrote in a LinkedIn post on Monday that customers will benefit from the close connection between the companies' products. "It's been quite an eventful last few months, and now it's time to show what we're made of," Wang wrote.

Startup Behind Goldman Sachs' First 'A.I. Employee' Valued at $10B After Peter Thiel Funding

Cognition's revenue is soaring thanks to its flagship product: an A.I. engineer named Devin. Cognition AI, the San Francisco-based startup known for its A.I. software engineer Devin used by Goldman Sachs, has more than doubled its valuation to $10.2 billion after raising more than $400 million in a round led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund. The deal, announced yesterday (Sept. 8), also drew participation from existing backers including angel investor Elad Gil, Lux Capital, 8VC, Neo, Definition Capital and Swish VC. The fresh financing marks a stark increase from the $4 billion valuation Cognition received earlier this year. Sign Up For Our Daily Newsletter Sign Up Thank you for signing up! By clicking submit, you agree to our <a href="http://observermedia.com/terms">terms of service</a> and acknowledge we may use your information to send you emails, product samples, and promotions on this website and other properties. You can opt out anytime. See all of our newsletters Cognition was launched in 2023 by Scott Wu, Steven Hao and Walden Yang. Wu, the company's CEO, previously co-founded Lunchbox, an A.I. networking platform. The founding team also includes alumni of Scale AI, Google DeepMind and self-driving software maker Waymo, as well as a number of elite coders who medaled at the International Olympiad in Informatics, a global programming competition. Cognition's flagship product is Devin, an A.I. software engineer. The company also made waves through acquisitions, most notably when it snapped up software firm Windsurf just days after Google hired away much of its leadership. While OpenAI had reportedly pursued Windsurf before complications with its partner Microsoft, Google in July struck a multibillion-dollar licensing deal for Windsurf's technology and acqui-hired several top staffers. Cognition then acquired what remained of the company: its team, intellectual property and product. Even before the Windsurf deal, Cognition's annual recurring revenue (ARR) had climbed rapidly -- from $1 million in September 2024 to $73 million by this June, Wu said in a press release. Since the acquisition, ARR has more than doubled. "We'll continue to invest significantly in both Devin and Windsurf, and our customers are already seeing how powerful the combination is together," Wu added, noting that clients include Goldman Sachs, Dell and Palantir. Looking ahead, Cognition plans to expand the ways its users can leverage the combined power of Devin and Windsurf. "We're looking forward to enabling engineers [to] manage an army of agents to build technology faster," said Jeff Wang, Windsurf's interim CEO since former leader Varun Mohan departed for Google, in a LinkedIn post. "It's been quite an eventful last few months, and now it's time to show what we're made of."

Cognition AI cinches $10 billion valuation with new funding - The Economic Times

Artificial intelligence startup Cognition AI has reached a valuation of $10.2 billion in a roughly $400 million funding round -- a deal that highlights the continued investor frenzy around AI-powered software development. The latest round was led by Founders Fund, the venture capital firm backed by Peter Thiel, and included existing investors such as Lux Capital, Joe Lonsdale's 8VC, Elad Gil, Definition Capital and Swish Ventures, the company said Monday. The deal marks a big jump in valuation for Cognition, which raised money earlier this year at a valuation of $4 billion. It also coincides with big growth for the company. Cognition's annual recurring revenue from its coding tool Devin -- billed as "the world's first AI software engineer" -- was about $1 million in September 2024, and climbed to about $73 million in June. Since Cognition's acquisition of coding startup Windsurf in July, its overall revenue has doubled, the company said. The startup said it has kept its net burn under $20 million since its founding two years ago. Cognition's deal to buy Windsurf made it famous in Silicon Valley this summer. The deal came after Alphabet Inc.'s Google inked a $2.4 billion agreement to license Windsurf's technology and hire away much of its top talent -- leaving remaining employees wondering what would happen next. Just days later, Cognition bought what was left of the company. In the nearly two months since the Windsurf acquisition, Cognition said its enterprise ARR has grown by more than 30%, driven by cross-selling between previously distinct customer bases. Windsurf's clients have adopted Devin, while Cognition's business users -- ranging from banks Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc. to tech companies like Palantir Technologies Inc. and Dell Technologies Inc. -- have signed on to use Windsurf. The company believes the combined product suite will allow Cognition to position itself as a leader in AI-powered software development, even as tech giants like Google, Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. race to build out rival offerings. The company plans to use the fresh influx of cash to expand its engineering team and accelerate product development, betting that AI agents will become a core part of corporate technology stacks.

Cognition Raises $400 Million to Bolster AI Agent Efforts | PYMNTS.com

By completing this form, you agree to receive marketing communications from PYMNTS and to the sharing of your information with our sponsor, if applicable, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions. The startup announced Monday (Sept. 8) that it had raised $400 million in a funding round, the latest in a series of AI firms seeing their valuations skyrocket recently. "We founded Cognition last year to build the future of software engineering," Co-founder and CEO Scott Wu wrote on the company blog. "We envision a world of software abundance where engineers become architects, solving the most challenging problems and focusing on their creative visions while tasking an army of autonomous agents to support them on everything else." Last March, Wu added, Cognition debuted "Devin," its AI software engineer. At the time, it was an adept but "very junior" engineer. Now, while "we are still in the earliest innings of AI code," AI agents are working alongside individual developers and within large enterprise engineering teams. "As with many technologies throughout history, what first seemed a fringe theory quickly became an obvious reality," Wu added, first with Devin and then with Windsurf, the AI code generation startup Cognition acquired in July. And that purchase followed Google's deal to recruit several Windsurf executives and researchers, which itself came after months of negotiations between Windsurf and OpenAI. The latter company which had explored a possible acquisition valued at $3 billion. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that Cognition had raised $500 million in a funding round that doubled the company's valuation to $9.8 billion. The same report noted the company raised $300 million in an earlier round this year, valuing it at $4 billion. Writing about the use of AI agents earlier this month, PYMNTS posited a scenario in which an agent, outfitted with a realistic avatar, can serve as a treasurer, with that avatar functioning as a "conduit of explainability." "Imagine a treasury meeting where the AI treasurer presents cash forecasts, highlighting potential liquidity shortfalls two quarters out," the report said. "The avatar explains that a pattern in supplier payments and foreign exchange exposures points to risk. When asked why the system recommends hedging euro-denominated receivables, the avatar cites real-time volatility metrics, historical correlations, stress tests, then executes the hedge instantly once approved." At the same time, PYMNTS Intelligence research has shown some reluctance among finance chiefs to embrace agentic AI, with just 15% of executives surveyed saying they were even considering the technology, and most still in the early evaluation stage.