Startup profile · funding coverage
Cognition funding, valuation and investors
Autonomous AI software engineer Devin — agents that code, debug, and ship production software for enterprises.
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Funding, valuation & investors
Answer-first snapshotLatest funding
Series D
$1B+ · May 2026
Latest known valuation
$26B
Series D · May 2026
Total disclosed equity funding
$400M
Excludes debt, grants, acquisitions, secondaries, and IPO proceeds.
Current status
private
growth · San Francisco, CA
Investors in latest funding
Lead: Lux Capital , General Catalyst , 8VC
Other: Founders Fund , Ribbit Capital , Bain Capital Ventures
Overview
Cognition is an applied AI lab whose flagship product, Devin, is an autonomous AI software engineer that plans, writes, debugs, and deploys code across enterprise engineering workflows. The company also offers Devin Desktop (rebranded from acquired Windsurf IDE) and DeepWiki. Founded in November 2023 by Scott Wu, Steven Hao, and Walden Yan in San Francisco, Cognition serves customers including Goldman Sachs, Mercedes-Benz, NASA, and Santander. In May 2026 it raised more than $1B at a $26B valuation co-led by Lux Capital, General Catalyst, and 8VC, with run-rate revenue reaching $492M — up from $37M a year prior per company and TechCrunch reporting.
Why Cognition is interesting
Cognition's $1B+ round at $26B in May 2026 was anchored by $492M run-rate revenue — a 13× jump in a year — with Devin reportedly writing 89% of Cognition's own pull requests, making it the clearest revenue-led AI coding valuation of the cycle.
Product & use cases
Devin is a cloud-based AI software engineer that autonomously handles coding tasks — from bug fixes to multi-month modernization projects — with integrations for enterprise repos and CI/CD. Devin Desktop extends agentic coding into the IDE.
- Enterprise code modernization and legacy migration (e.g., Mercedes-Benz project cited by company)
- Continuous feature development and bug triage for engineering teams understaffed versus backlog
- Government and regulated-industry software projects requiring auditable agent workflows
Key facts
- Series D (May 2026): $1B+ at $26B valuation co-led by Lux Capital, General Catalyst, and 8VC (TechCrunch)
- September 1, 2026: Bloomberg sources said a new ~$1B raise at ~$47B — reported, not company-confirmed
- September 3, 2026: Swish Ventures named Cognition in its $250M Fund III close (/2026-swish-ventures-250m-fund-iii) — not a new Cognition round
- Run-rate revenue: $492M in May 2026, up ~13× from $37M a year earlier (company LinkedIn post)
- Devin writes 89% of Cognition's own PRs; enterprise usage up 10×+ since January 2026
- Customers include Goldman Sachs, Mercedes-Benz, NASA, Santander, and U.S. government agencies
- Acquired Windsurf IDE in July 2025; total funding exceeds $2.5B
Funding history (newest first)
Series D
2026-05 $1B+ Valuation: $26B- Lux Capital (lead)
- General Catalyst (lead)
- 8VC (lead)
- Founders Fund (participant)
- Ribbit Capital (participant)
- Bain Capital Ventures (participant)
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/27/ai-coding-startup-cognition-raises-1b-at-25b-pre-money-valuation/
Series C
2025-09 $400M Valuation: $10B- Founders Fund (lead)
- Lux Capital (participant)
- 8VC (participant)
- D1 Capital Partners (participant)
Investors in our directory
Funds linked from Cognition's profile — open a fund page for stage focus and related deal articles.
Competitive landscape
Edge: Cognition pairs product velocity with disclosed revenue scale unusual for AI agents — Devin ships production code at named Fortune 500 and agency customers, and the team uses its own agents to build the product, creating a tight feedback loop.
AI coding is splitting between IDE copilots, autonomous agents, and foundation-model providers. Cognition's $492M run-rate validates enterprise willingness to pay for agent throughput, but multiples (~53× revenue at $26B) assume durability against fast-improving model providers and IDE incumbents.
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GitHub Copilot / Microsoft incumbent
IDE-embedded coding assistant with massive distribution; less autonomous end-to-end task completion than Devin markets.
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Cursor direct
AI-native IDE popular with developers; Cognition acquired rival Windsurf to compete in-editor.
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OpenAI Codex / frontier labs adjacent
Foundation models improving native coding each release; Cognition builds application layer on top.
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Poolside direct
Enterprise-focused AI coding platform; competes for large engineering-org contracts.
Notable stories
- Cognition acquired Windsurf (formerly Codeium's IDE unit) in July 2025 after Google's $2.4B acquihire of Windsurf's CEO — preserving an agentic IDE asset that became Devin Desktop (Wikipedia, company announcements).
- Devin reportedly compressed a Mercedes-Benz code-modernization project from eight months to eight days, a customer case cited at the May 2026 fundraise (TechCrunch).
Industries
Related funding articles
Venture Capital Tracker pieces that cover Cognition's financing or category context.
- Cognition's $1B at $26B: Devin and the 13x Revenue Sprint
- September 2–3 VC News: Wonderful $5B, Console $500M Reported, iPronics $125M
- September 2026 VC News: Nvidia–Hugging Face $12.93B Agreed, Nscale $3.5B Ask
- Swish Ventures Closes $250M Fund III — $800M Is AUM, Not This Vehicle
- September 5–6 VC News: Swish $250M Fund III, ServiceNow–Sweep Reported
FAQs about Cognition
Practical answers founders, operators, and investors typically search for.
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