Cognition
Cognition is a San Francisco applied AI lab that builds Devin, an autonomous AI software engineer capable of independently planning, writing, testing, and shipping production code. It sells Devin to large enterprises, financial institutions, technology companies, and U.S. federal agencies through direct sales, IT services partners, and the Carahsoft government channel.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2024
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount101–250
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Cognition does
Cognition is a San Francisco-based applied AI lab that builds autonomous software engineering agents, with its flagship product Devin positioned as the first AI software engineer capable of independently planning, writing, testing, and shipping production code inside existing codebases and developer tools. The company's core technology stack combines proprietary large language models — including the SWE-1.6 and FrontierCode systems — with a compound AI architecture that handles end-to-end development tasks, from requirements interpretation through deployment. Cognition ships its technology in multiple deployment forms: a cloud agent platform, a Devin Desktop application for local execution, the acquired Windsurf integrated development environment, and a Cognition for Government variant that holds FedRAMP High authorization for federal agencies, including legacy COBOL and mainframe modernization workloads.
The business model is anchored in enterprise subscription licensing with a usage-based component and an outcome-based pricing layer introduced via the AI Productivity Guarantee. Cognition goes to market through a direct enterprise field sales motion targeting large financial institutions, technology companies, automotive manufacturers, and U.S. federal agencies, supplemented by a channel network that includes Carahsoft as Master Government Aggregator and IT services partnerships with Cognizant, Infosys, Synechron, Endava, and Fiserv. Annualized revenue run-rate reached $492 million by May 2026, up from $37 million one year earlier, while the company operates from offices in San Francisco, London, Singapore, and Tokyo following the 2025 Windsurf acquisition and 2026 Havana acquisition to seed APAC operations.
Cognition firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Cognition
- Legal name
- Cognition AI Inc.
- Website
- https://cognition.ai
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2024
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 101–250 employees
- Short description
- Cognition is a San Francisco applied AI lab that builds Devin, an autonomous AI software engineer capable of independently planning, writing, testing, and shipping production code. It sells Devin to large enterprises, financial institutions, technology companies, and U.S. federal agencies through direct sales, IT services partners, and the Carahsoft government channel.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Cognition industry classification
Industry- Product category
- AI Software Engineering Platform
- NAICS
- Software Publishers (5132), Software Publishers (513210), Computer Systems Design Services (541512)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Programming Services (7371), Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373)
- akta.pro primary industry
- AI Application Enablement Platforms (Copilot/Agent Frameworks, SDKs) (HDAEANAJ)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Model Development & Training Platforms (AutoML, Notebooks, Feature Stores) (HDAEANAB)
Keywords
Where Cognition is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices4 records
Markets served
Cognition business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Devin Enterprise Licenses: Subscription-based licensing of the Devin autonomous AI software engineer to enterprise customers. Revenue run-rate reached $492 million as of May 2026, growing from $37 million in May 2025. Model includes per-seat and usage-based components for enterprise deployments.
- Outcome-Based Pricing: Performance-linked pricing where customers pay based on verified outcomes within specific workflows. Cognition has earned the right to define and measure outcomes in client environments.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Monthly | Core tier for individual developers at $20/month |
| Subscription | Annual | Enterprise tier with custom pricing |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels6 records
Cognition product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Cognition develops Devin, an autonomous AI software engineer that independently plans, writes, tests, and ships production code within existing codebases and developer tools. The portfolio also includes Windsurf, an AI-integrated development environment acquired in 2025, and Cognition for Government, a FedRAMP High-authorized platform for federal agencies to modernize legacy systems including COBOL and mainframe code.
Product overview
Cognition is an AI company operating a platform-plus-products architecture centered on autonomous software engineering. The core product is Devin, an autonomous AI software engineer that plans, writes, tests, and ships production code independently. Devin is available in multiple forms: as a cloud platform (devin.ai), as Devin Desktop for local execution, and through Windsurf (an acquired AI-integrated development environment). Cognition also offers vertical-specific versions including Cognition for Government (FedRAMP High authorized for federal agencies) and Cognition for Teams. The portfolio is unified by the same underlying autonomous agent technology, with products differentiated by deployment context (cloud, desktop, IDE) and target segment (general enterprise, government, teams). Recent additions include FrontierCode (next-generation coding model) and the AI Productivity Guarantee program.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Devin: Autonomous AI software engineer capable of planning, writing, testing, and shipping production code independently
- Windsurf
- Cognition for Government
Products and services
- Devin An autonomous AI software engineer that plans, writes, tests, and ships production code independently. Works inside existing codebases and integrates with the developer tools teams already use. Deployed at large enterprises and federal agencies including Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, Dell, Cisco, Palantir, Mercedes-Benz, the U.S. Army, and the U.S. Navy.
- Devin Desktop A desktop application that lets developers run the Devin autonomous AI software engineer locally on their own machines for software engineering tasks.
- Windsurf An AI-integrated development environment offering agentic coding features and collaborative development capabilities for enterprise engineering teams, integrated with the Devin autonomous agent.
- Cognition for Government A specialized version of the Devin platform with FedRAMP High authorization for U.S. federal agencies, designed to modernize legacy systems including COBOL and mainframe code while maintaining federal security and compliance requirements.
- FrontierCode Cognition's next-generation coding system and frontier model that sets new benchmarks on coding evaluations for software engineering tasks.
- AI Productivity Guarantee An outcome-based guarantee program where Cognition commits to measurable productivity gains from Devin deployment, with customers paying based on verified outcomes within specific workflows.
Quantifiable outcome
- Mercedes-Benz reduced an eight-month legacy project to eight days
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use Cognition
Customer profileNamed customers16 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Cognition technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration2 records
AI capability5 records
Feature5 records
Cognition partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core, major and minor.
- CarahsoftcoreStrategic partnership where Carahsoft serves as Master Government Aggregator for Devin. Provides public sector access through NASA SEWP V, NASPO ValuePoint, and OMNIA Partners procurement contracts. Includes joint go-to-market efforts for federal agencies.
- FiservmajorPartnership to deploy Devin across Fiserv's core banking technology modernization initiatives. Devin will execute complex engineering work in parallel to accelerate shipping new capabilities while strengthening governance and security controls for AI-assisted development.
- HavanaminorSingapore-based AI startup acquired to build local engineering and go-to-market capabilities for Asia-Pacific regional headquarters. Team integrated into regional operations across engineering, product development, and go-to-market functions.
- SynechronmajorAI partnership to help financial institutions modernize essential software using Devin. Joint research showed reductions in upgrade times, streamlined engineering workflows, and improvements in software testing. Enterprise pilots planned for programming language upgrades, mainframe modernization, and data migration.
- EndavamajorExpanded partnership to scale governed agentic software delivery integrating Windsurf and Devin platforms within Endava's Dava.Flow delivery framework. Joint go-to-market initiatives to help large organizations transform delivery models.
- Aston Martin Aramco Formula One TeamminorMulti-year Global Partner agreement making Cognition a Global Partner of the Silverstone-based F1 team. Cognition provides AI-powered tools for autonomous software development as part of Aston Martin's championship-winning mission.
- CognizantmajorStrategic partnership to bring autonomous AI software engineers into enterprise software development. Integrates Devin AI and Windsurf into Cognizant's engineering platforms with initial focus on enterprise modernization. Cognizant targeting 50% AI-generated code.
- InfosysmajorPartnership to deploy Devin at enterprise scale with positive client feedback reported. Infosys has trained 50,000 employees in responsible AI as part of its AI-first value framework under Topaz brand.
- WindsurfcoreAI code editing vendor acquired in 2025 providing agentic development environment. Now integrated as part of Cognition's platform alongside Devin for enterprise deployments.
Scale indicators9 records
Recent moves10 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Cognition competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- GitHub Copilot (Microsoft): Microsoft's AI coding assistant embedded across GitHub, VS Code, and Azure. The broadest incumbent in AI-assisted software engineering, with deep enterprise distribution and bundled cloud/IDE positioning that competes directly with Devin's seat-based and enterprise offerings.
- JetBrains AI Assistant: AI features layered on JetBrains' widely deployed IDEs (IntelliJ, PyCharm, etc.). A broad incumbent reaching the same enterprise developer base as Cognition, with deep IDE distribution and bundled AI capabilities.
Direct peers
- Cursor (Anysphere): AI-native IDE and coding agent from Anysphere, widely considered Devin's closest direct competitor for autonomous, agentic coding workflows. Targets the same enterprise and developer segments with comparable agentic code-generation capabilities.
- Replit: AI-enabled cloud development environment with autonomous agent capabilities (Replit Agent) for end-to-end app building. Competes with Devin in agentic software creation and is a fellow participant in the MCP/agent ecosystem.
- Codeium (Windsurf was a Codeium competitor pre-Cognition acquisition): AI coding assistant with its own Windsurf-style IDE and agentic features; a direct peer in AI-augmented and autonomous coding. Competes head-to-head with Cognition's Windsurf IDE and Devin agent for developer mindshare.
- Sourcegraph: Enterprise code intelligence platform with Cody AI coding assistant and Amp agent. Targets the same large-enterprise modernization and developer-productivity use cases as Cognition, including legacy code navigation.
- Tabnine: Enterprise AI coding assistant focused on private deployment and IP-safe code generation. Competes with Devin for security-conscious enterprise customers, particularly in financial services and regulated industries.
Emerging players
- Augment Code: AI coding agent focused on large enterprise codebases with autonomous code-modification features. Emerging direct competitor in the agentic coding category, particularly for legacy modernization workflows.
- Poolside: AI foundation-model company building autonomous software engineering capabilities with significant funding. Targets enterprise developer productivity as a peer in the broader autonomous-coding category.
- Cline (open-source AI coding agent): Open-source autonomous coding agent integrated into VS Code. Represents the open-source/developer-led approach that competes for the same agentic coding workflows Cognition monetizes at the enterprise tier.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Cognition social profiles
Digital presenceCognition compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance1 record
Cognition financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Cognition leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles6 records
Cognition subsidiaries and ownership
Company hierarchySubsidiaries2 records
Cognition funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds6 records
Investors50 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Cognition M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A3 records
Investments1 record
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Cognition
What does Cognition do?
Cognition develops Devin, an autonomous AI software engineer that independently plans, writes, tests, and ships production code within existing codebases and developer tools. The portfolio also includes Windsurf, an AI-integrated development environment acquired in 2025, and Cognition for Government, a FedRAMP High-authorized platform for federal agencies to modernize legacy systems including COBOL and mainframe code.
Is Cognition a public or private company?
Cognition is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Cognition founded?
Cognition was founded in 2024. It employs 101 to 250 people.
Where is Cognition based?
Cognition is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
How does Cognition make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Devin Enterprise Licenses are the primary driver. The others are outcome-Based Pricing.
Who are Cognition's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are GitHub Copilot (Microsoft) and JetBrains AI Assistant. Direct peers are Cursor (Anysphere), Replit, Codeium (Windsurf was a Codeium competitor pre-Cognition acquisition), Sourcegraph and Tabnine. Emerging players are Augment Code, Poolside and Cline (open-source AI coding agent).
Does Cognition have an API?
No public API is recorded for Cognition.
What industry is Cognition in?
Cognition's product category is AI Software Engineering Platform. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAEANAJ, AI Application Enablement Platforms (Copilot/Agent Frameworks, SDKs), with a secondary code of HDAEANAB, Model Development & Training Platforms (AutoML, Notebooks, Feature Stores). Its NAICS code is 5132 and its SIC code is 7372.