Silicon Valley's AI coding unicorn Cognition AI, backed by prominent investor Peter Thiel, announced on Tuesday that it has raised $2 billion in a Series E financing round, catapulting its valuation to $48 billion. The investment was spearheaded by venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz and Accel, with continued participation from existing backers Founders Fund, General Catalyst, and Avenir.
A broad coalition of additional investors joined the round, including Benchmark, Bessemer, Kleiner Perkins, Greylock, Lightspeed, Altimeter, Bond Capital, Meritech, Atreides, Valor, T. Rowe Price, Lux, 8VC, D1, 137 Ventures, DST, Positive Sum, HOF, Soma, BoxGroup, Battery, Ribbit, Swish, Stripes, Definition, Hanabi, Journey, Bain Capital Ventures, Layer Global, A* Capital, Alpha Wave, Alkeon, Diffusion, and Nvidia (NVDA.US).
The company also revealed that its annualized revenue has climbed to nearly $900 million, up from the $492 million recorded during its previous funding round in May. Founded in 2023, Cognition is among a wave of startups leveraging AI technology to streamline the code-writing and debugging process. The firm primarily targets enterprise clients, with its flagship product being Devin, which it has touted as the "world's first AI software engineer."
Like other AI coding firms, Cognition faces intense competition from leading model developers such as OpenAI and Anthropic PBC, both of which are aggressively marketing their own AI tools to software engineers. In a statement, Cognition noted that Devin is becoming an integral component of enterprise software development, with clients across various industries rapidly scaling their usage. The platform supports global leaders, assisting Nvidia's chip design teams, GE Aerospace's aviation division, Citigroup's financial services team, Mercedes-Benz's automotive unit, and Modal's AI infrastructure group.
Reports from last month indicated that Cognition was in talks with investors to secure $2 billion at a valuation exceeding $40 billion. The company's valuation in May stood at $26 billion.