Replika Founder's Wabi Raises $55 Million at $1.25 Billion for an AI Assistant Built for Groups
Wabi, the personal AI assistant founded by Replika creator Eugenia Kuyda, raised $55 million led by IVP at a $1.25 billion valuation, with a16z, Forerunner and the Amazon Alexa Fund participating. Wabi is built around shared spaces where friends, couples and families use one AI agent and custom mini-apps together. It gives no user or revenue figures.
Wabi is betting that the next consumer AI assistant lives in the group chat rather than a one-to-one window, the opposite of where the big labs started. The company, founded by Eugenia Kuyda, who previously built the AI companion app Replika, said on October 29 that it raised $55 million led by IVP at a $1.25 billion valuation. Bloomberg reported the same terms.
The product#
Wabi describes itself as a personal AI assistant "built for life together". It combines an AI agent, personalized mini-apps and shared spaces, so a couple can keep a running list of restaurants, a family can share a weekly meal plan that becomes a grocery list, or friends can build a trivia game, the company says. It also says Wabi helps with coordinating schedules, homework, booking appointments and planning trips. The app is on iOS, Android and Mac, with Windows coming.
The bet runs against current product design at the large labs. OpenAI's new texting feature for ChatGPT's dot agent, for example, is limited to one-to-one chats.
The round#
Andreessen Horowitz, Forerunner and the Amazon Alexa Fund also invested, along with angels including Tobi Lütke, Marc Benioff, Marissa Mayer, Dick Costolo and Alex Pall, Wabi says. The company says the money will fund product development and expansion.
Limits#
- Wabi's release cites "strong early demand" but gives no user, retention or revenue figures.
- The use cases described are Wabi's own examples.