Cognition hits $48B valuation, signaling investors believe AI coding is far from a winner-take-all market
Cognition, maker of Devin, raised $2 billion at a $48 billion valuation led by a16z, Accel, and Founders Fund, with revenue at $900M annualized.
Cognition raised $2 billion at a $48 billion valuation, four months after a $26 billion round, led by Andreessen Horowitz, Accel, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, and Avenir. Its annualized run-rate revenue grew from $492 million to $900 million since May, with projected $4-5 billion by end of 2026, while compute costs could push 2026 burn to $800 million. The startup, founded by Scott Wu, counts Mercedes-Benz, NASA, Goldman Sachs, and Citi as customers and is training its own model to cut reliance on OpenAI and Anthropic.
Kevin Mandia joins the Amazon board with 30-plus years in cybersecurity
Amazon elected Mandiant founder Kevin Mandia to its board of directors on September 8, citing cybersecurity as a top organizational risk.
Amazon added Kevin Mandia, founder and former CEO of Mandiant (acquired by Google in 2022), to its Board of Directors. He currently leads security company Armadin as founder and CEO and is co-founder and general partner at venture firm Ballistic Ventures. Mandia has over 30 years of cybersecurity experience, including service on NSTAC and CISA's Cybersecurity Advisory Committee and prior roles as a Pentagon computer security officer and Air Force Office of Special Investigations special agent.
Early Anthropic hire, former METR COO have found a way to rein in rogue AI agents
Startup AIUC raises $40M Series A to provide SOC 2-style third-party audits testing AI agents for jailbreaks, hallucinations, and data leaks.
Artificial Intelligence Underwriting Company (AIUC), founded by early Anthropic employee Rune Kvist and former METR COO Rajiv Dattani, announced a $40 million Series A led by Ribbit Capital, bringing total funding to $55 million. Its AIUC-1 standard and testing service runs AI agents through roughly 5,000 tests covering jailbreaks, hallucinations, and data leaks, producing a roughly 100-page audit report verified by humans. Customers include Cursor, Lovable, Harvey, and ElevenLabs.