Wabi raises $55 million at a $1.25 billion valuation, just 10 days after its personal AI assistant fully opened to the public.

Beating AI News Flash: Wabi, the new company from Eugenia Kuyda, founder of AI companion app Replika, has announced the completion of a $55 million Series A funding round, reaching a valuation of $1.25 billion. IVP led the round, with participation from a16z, Forerunner, and Amazon Alexa Fund. Combined with the $20 million financing in November last year, Wabi has raised a total of $75 million in less than a year.

Last year, Wabi was still pitching itself as a "YouTube for apps": enabling ordinary people to generate mini-programs with a single sentence and then share them with others to use and modify. At the end of September this year, it pivoted to a personal AI assistant, focused on booking services in group chats, arranging schedules, handling daily affairs, and generating lists, calendars, and mini-games on demand.

In a previous interview with TechCrunch, Kuyda acknowledged that the team found users like personalized software but may not be willing to spend time building it themselves. The new version of Wabi therefore has AI proactively generate the needed mini-programs.

However, Wabi's personal AI assistant was not fully opened until October 19. Although the company emphasized "strong demand" in its funding announcement, it did not disclose active user, retention, or revenue data. Ten days ago, Kuyda also said the product is currently free and the business model has not yet been determined.