Cognition

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.

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

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

• Autonomous software engineering
• AI code generation
• Developer productivity tools
• Enterprise AI agents
• Code modernization platform

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices4 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. 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.
2. 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

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core 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

Named customers16 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

AI capability5 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core, major and minor.

• CarahsoftcoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ Distributor · 4 June 2026Strategic 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.
• FiservmajorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 28 May 2026Partnership 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.
• HavanaminorOthers · 29 April 2026Singapore-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.
• SynechronmajorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting Partner · 13 March 2026AI 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.
• EndavamajorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting Partner · 18 February 2026Expanded 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 TeamminorGTM or Marketing Partner · 10 February 2026Multi-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.
• CognizantmajorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting Partner · 28 January 2026Strategic 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.
• InfosysmajorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting Partner · 28 January 2026Partnership 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.
• WindsurfcoreOthersAI 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

Broad 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

• Xx.com/cognition_labs
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/cognition-ai-labs

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Subsidiaries2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds6 records

Investors50 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A3 records

Investments1 record

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Cognition