AI coding startup Cognition has raised $1 billion at a prior valuation of $25 billion

Cognition, the maker of freelance AI software engineer Devin, has raised more than $1 billion at a pre-fund valuation of $25 billion, the company announced Wednesday.

That’s a big jump from its post-cash valuation of $10.2 billion when it closed a $400 million funding round just eight months ago in September.

The round was led by Lux Capital and General Catalyst, with existing investors flowing in, including Founders Fund, 8VC and others. The round also included new investors such as Ribbit Capital, Atreides and Layer Global.

This is a huge vote of confidence on the part of top-tier venture capital firms that there will be room for independent startups in the field of AI software programming. Last year, all signs pointed to model makers having gobbled up this hot market themselves. Anthropic’s Claude Code, OpenAI’s Codex, and perhaps even Google’s programming agent Jules (following Google’s acquisition of Windsurf last year) have certainly captured a lot of it.

But Cognition, which acquired the remaining parts of Windsurf last year, says it counts major companies such as Mercedes-Benz, NASA, Goldman Sachs and Santander among its clients. It also says it reached $492 million in annual revenue run rate as enterprise usage of Devin increased 50% month-over-month over the past six months.