AI Assistant Startup Wabi Raises $55 Million at $1.25 Billion Value

AI assistant startup Wabi Inc. has raised $55 million at a $1.25 billion valuation to build out its software that lets groups of people interact with artificial intelligence agents to coordinate activities and make collective decisions.

The funding round for the California-based startup was led by IVP and included participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Amazon Alexa Fund and Forerunner Ventures, Wabi plans to announce on Thursday.

The startup is yet another entry into the personal assistant space, where giants like OpenAI and Meta Platforms Inc. are competing to attract more consumers to their AI products. In September, OpenAI released its always-on agent called Dots, which users can interact with via messaging or calls, and is designed to complete work on their behalf. The same month, Meta debuted its assistant Muse, which topped mobile app charts shortly after its release.

Wabi, which launched its latest version on Oct. 19, is an AI assistant users can bring into group chats to help plan trips, coordinate schedules and manage everyday tasks. The agent can turn conversations into shared tools like travel itineraries, calendars and polls, and it can take action on requests like booking appointments or handling shopping returns.

“AI shouldn’t just save people time. It should help them spend it better, doing more of what they love, with the people they love,” said Wabi’s founder and chief executive officer Eugenia Kuyda.

Andreessen Horowitz general partner Anish Acharya said his firm invested in Wabi because he believes Kuyda has a strong intuition for developing AI for everyday Americans, whereas many other companies tend to create agents that are “built by technologists for technologists.”

Wabi said its assistant can track reminders and organize information from emails, coordinate family calendars and scheduling conflicts, and manage household budgets. It also has the ability to access banking and account login information, while keeping the sensitive credentials stored in a virtual vault, the company said.

An update to the app coming next week will allow users to call and speak with the agent, which can accept assignments and share audio updates in real time.

Kuyda’s past efforts include the AI companion app Replika, a conversational bot she built in 2017 to help process grief after the death of a friend. The platform later evolved to offer romantic and conversational AI companion services, which have drawn millions of users and hundreds of thousands of paying subscribers.

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