Corgi, the AI insurance startup that works seven days a week and operates an all-night cafe in San Francisco, has raised money from investors yet again — for the third time in less than three months. The current fundraise values the company at $4 billion, almost twice its worth since late May, multiple sources familiar with the matter told Forbes.
Even in the frenzied world of AI startups, Corgi’s fundraising has been eyebrow-raising. In early May, the company announced a $160 million Series B from backers including TCV and Kindred Ventures, which vaulted the company to unicorn status at a $1.3 billion valuation. Just three weeks later, it announced an extension to that round from the same investors, raising $106 million and doubling its valuation to $2.6 billion.
The newest round is yet another extension of its Series B and is now closed, according to a person familiar with the matter. It’s unclear who participated in the new round or how much money the company raised. The company is projecting it will increase its revenue run rate tenfold by end of year, from $45 milion to $450 million.
“Any fundraising announcement would come directly from us when we’re ready to share it,” a Corgi spokesperson said. “We’re truly grateful for the continued interest and support from our community as we focus on building something important.”
Corgi has become something of a poster child for the insanity of San Francisco’s current AI boom. Founded just two years ago, it uses AI to generate insurance quotes for clients — mostly other startups, and allows startups to sell insurance to their own customers. It also uses AI to manage claims instead of sending them to teams of human evaluators that are often working overseas.
What really makes Corgi stand out, though, is its unusual workplace. Employees collectively own a two-year-old corgi named Trudy, who they feed, walk and bathe with the help of an AI bot on Telegram that reminds employees to carry out the tasks. The startup owns and operates the Corgi Cafe, a 24/7 coffee house that’s open to the public. And its founder CEO sleeps on a mattress in the office, thanks to the company’s policy to work seven days a week in person.
“If your days off happen to be Saturday and Sunday every week, then you will not have a place at Corgi,” CEO Nico Laqua said on the 20VC podcast in May.
The company’s ‘hustle culture’ has faced backlash. After Corgi announced its first fundraise of the year in May, startup founders took to X to complain about the startup’s aggressive tactics. “Tell me why I got bombarded with 6 calls and 5 text messages all from different people within a 1 minute time span,” one user posted.
Others have called Corgi’s work culture a viral gimmick rather than a sound business strategy. “There is a growing cliché in startup culture where founders and startups feel the need to perform intensity publicly,” Linear CEO Karri Saarinen posted to X, in response to the 20VC podcast detailing Corgi’s work policies. “How hard they work, how little they sleep, how many tokens they spend, how busy they are, how much personal sacrifice they make. You almost never see this from the most successful companies or people.”
Still, Laqua seems steadfast about the seven-day work policy. “My only regret is that there’s not eight days in a week,” he told Forbes in May.