Replika's creator strikes gold again: her AI agent is worth $1.25B

Eugenia Kuyda, the founder behind Replika, the app with virtual friends and partners, has raised money again. Her new startup Wabi pulled in $55 million, and investors now value it at $1.25 billion. The round was announced on Thursday, October 29.

IVP led the round, joined by Andreessen Horowitz, Forerunner and the Amazon Alexa Fund. The angels include Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, former Yahoo chief Marissa Mayer, former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo and Alex Pall of The Chainsmokers.

Wabi started as a builder: you describe an app in plain words and get a small working one. In September the company pivoted to Wabi 2.0, which calls itself a "personal agent" and works as an AI messenger. The idea is that the agent builds whatever interface you need in the middle of a chat: a meal planner, a list of local restaurants, a date night plan, a workout program or a trivia game on your favorite topic.

The personal agent market is red hot. In September the viral agent Instinct raised another billion at a $10 billion valuation, and the AI companion Tolan just picked up $30 million. Against that backdrop Wabi is not the loudest bet, but it is an expensive one on the idea that nobody will download apps in the future, they will just ask an agent for them.

Verdict: apps on demand still sound like a toy, but someone just paid a billion and a quarter for that toy.