Wabi raises $55 million at $1.25 billion valuation as AI agent funding accelerates

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Wabi AI funding milestone

Highlights

Wabi raised $55 million in a round led by IVP, reaching a $1.25 billion valuation after shifting to AI-powered personal agents with Wabi 2.0.
The new product creates mini apps for tasks such as meal planning and fitness, capturing investor interest in utility-focused AI agent applications.
Wabi's financing, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Forerunner and several tech leaders, follows Instinct's billion-dollar raise and Tolan's $30 million round.

Funding round backs Wabi's agent strategy

As reported by TechCrunch, Wabi says it has raised $55 million in a new funding round led by IVP, giving the startup a valuation of $1.25 billion.

Founded by Eugenia Kuyda, who previously started AI companion company Replika, Wabi initially focused on letting users build apps with prompts. The company announced a strategic shift last month toward becoming an AI messenger, describing the updated product as Wabi 2.0 and positioning it as a personal AI agent that can generate the interfaces users need to complete tasks.

Wabi says the product can create mini apps for uses including meal planning, tracking local restaurants, planning date nights, building fitness plans and designing specialized trivia games. In a statement, IVP general partner Alex Lim says Kuyda has a clear view of how people will interact with AI beyond text boxes or command lines, and calls Wabi the expression of that vision.

AI agent market draws broader investor support

The financing adds to a fast-growing flow of capital into AI agent and AI companion businesses, as investors back multiple approaches to building consumer-facing assistants. The market remains highly competitive, with startups testing formats that range from utility-driven agents to personality-based companions.

Wabi's round also includes Andreessen Horowitz, Forerunner, Amazon Alexa Fund and angel investors including Shopify Chief Executive Tobi Lutke, Salesforce Chief Executive Marc Benioff, former Yahoo head Marissa Mayer, former Twitter Chief Executive Dick Costolo and Alex Pall of The Chainsmokers. The deal follows other large financings in the segment, including Instinct's billion-dollar raise at a $10 billion valuation in September and Tolan's recent $30 million round.

In our earlier article on AI agents’ impact in large U.S. companies, we covered survey findings showing many executives are seeing efficiency and growth gains, even as only a small share view the technology as truly transformational so far. The piece also highlighted how adoption is being paired with continued hiring, retraining, and sustained investment in AI infrastructure as firms work through the harder process of redesigning workflows around agentic systems.

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