Two startup personal assistants have venture capitalists in a tizzy right now:
Town, the affable enterprise personal assistant, is in talks to raise at a $1 billion valuation in a round led by Index, sources tell us. The corporate personal assistant, started by former Plaid CTO Jean-Denis Greze and former Google applied AI product director Tony Vincent, received earlier backing from Andreessen Horowitz and Forerunner.
Meanwhile, Instinct, the text-based consumer personal assistant run by the company Spear Street Technology, is raising round after round. Founded by former Sierra researcher Noah Shinn, it has cumulatively raised $350 million with investors valuing it at $2.5 billion, as the Wall Street Journal first reported Wednesday. Index Ventures and Benchmark are leading this most recent round.
They’re two of the hottest startups around with venture capitalists eager to invest more money.
We were surprised that Index is backing both startups at the heart of the personal agent frenzy — though as one investor pointed out to us — Greylock once invested in both Facebook and LinkedIn.
Right now, venture capitalists themselves seem like the power users of these products. But investors see the possibility for generation-defining applications.