The competition to develop the dominant AI assistant continues to intensify, and venture capital is flowing in multiple directions as investors back a growing field of contenders. On Thursday, AI startup Wabi announced it has secured $55 million in its latest funding round, reaching a valuation of $1.25 billion as it repositions itself as a "personal agent" platform.

The company was founded by Eugenia Kuyda, who previously built Replika, the well-known AI companion application. Wabi's original concept centered on enabling users to build their own applications through simple text prompts, requiring no traditional coding knowledge. Last month, however, the startup signaled a meaningful shift in direction, announcing what it described as a transformation into an AI messenger platform.

From App Builder to Personal AI Agent

Under this updated vision, now being referred to informally as Wabi 2.0, the platform is designed to construct the interfaces a user needs on the fly, acting as a kind of intelligent intermediary between the person and their daily tasks. Rather than requiring users to navigate pre-built software, Wabi aims to generate tailored mini-applications in real time as part of its broader role as a personal AI agent.

The startup has outlined a range of practical use cases for this approach. According to the company, Wabi could be used to create tools for meal planning, tracking favorite local restaurants, organizing date nights, building personalized fitness schedules, designing custom trivia games, and handling a variety of other everyday tasks. The underlying premise is that the agent generates exactly the interface a user needs, precisely when they need it, rather than asking them to adapt to a fixed product.

Investor Confidence in the Agentic AI Market

The scale of this new funding round reflects a broader wave of investor enthusiasm around AI agents. The market has seen several high-profile raises in recent months, demonstrating that appetite for agentic AI products remains strong. Viral AI agent platform Instinct, for instance, closed a round at a $10 billion valuation in September. Meanwhile, Tolan, a startup building a Muppet-inspired AI companion designed to help users navigate everyday life decisions, recently raised $30 million of its own.

Wabi's new round was led by IVP, with general partner Alex Lim commenting publicly on the investment. "Eugenia has a unique sense for where AI is headed and a track record of great taste in building it," Lim said in a statement. "She has a clear vision for how people will interact with AI, one that goes far beyond the text box or command line. Wabi is the expression of that vision, and we're thrilled to support her."

Notable Backers Join the Round

Beyond IVP, the funding round drew participation from a notable collection of institutional investors and individual backers. On the institutional side, Andreessen Horowitz, Forerunner, and the Amazon Alexa Fund all contributed to the raise. The angel investor list is equally prominent, featuring Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, former Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer, former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, and musician and entrepreneur Alex Pall of the electronic duo The Chainsmokers.

The breadth of that investor list - spanning enterprise technology, retail commerce, media, and entertainment - underscores the cross-industry interest in platforms that can deliver genuinely personalized AI experiences. For Kuyda, whose background building conversational AI companions gives her a distinct perspective on human-AI interaction, the latest funding marks a significant vote of confidence in Wabi's revised direction and the broader potential of personal AI agents as a product category.