Briefs · Entrepreneurship
Replika's Founder Built a Friend That Builds Apps — Investors Just Priced It at $1.25 Billion
Eugenia Kuyda used to build AI companions. Now she builds an AI that builds things — and investors have valued the pivot at $1.25 billion.
Wabi, her startup, said on 29 October it has raised $55 million at a $1.25 billion valuation. IVP led the round; Andreessen Horowitz, Forerunner and the Amazon Alexa Fund joined, alongside angels including Shopify’s Tobi Lütke, Salesforce’s Marc Benioff, Marissa Mayer, Dick Costolo and Alex Pall of The Chainsmokers.
The product changed last month. Wabi began as a tool for building apps from prompts. In September it pivoted to a messenger built around a personal agent — Wabi 2.0 — which builds the interfaces you need as part of getting things done: meal plans, restaurant shortlists, date nights, fitness plans, trivia games. It launched to all users on 19 October, free, with no business model settled.
The valuation is, by any measure, a bet on taste. Wabi has disclosed $75 million in funding in total, counting a $20 million pre-seed in November 2025, and no user, revenue or retention figures at all.
Conclusion: Wabi is not an app, but rather an assistant that writes its own apps — and the market has priced the idea before the numbers exist.
Read the original at TechCrunch
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