Wabi raises $55 million at a $1.25 billion valuation

AI startup Wabi has raised $55 million at a $1.25 billion valuation, according to the company. It announced the funding on Thursday and now describes itself as a “personal agent.”

Founded by Eugenia Kuyda, who previously founded AI companion startup Replika, Wabi first focused on letting people build apps with prompts. Last month, it announced a shift toward becoming an AI messenger. The company says Wabi 2.0 can build interfaces for tasks as part of its personal-agent role.

Wabi says people could use it to create mini apps for meal planning, tracking local restaurants, planning date nights, fitness plans and specialized trivia games.

IVP led the funding round. Other participants included Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Forerunner, Amazon Alexa Fund and angel investors including Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, former Yahoo! head Marissa Mayer, former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo and Alex Pall of The Chainsmokers. IVP general partner Alex Lim praised Kuyda’s vision for how people will interact with AI in a statement.