Wabi Inc., the developer of an artificial intelligence assistant for consumers, today announced that it has raised $55 million in funding.

IVP led the seed round with contributions from Amazon Alexa Fund, Andreessen Horowitz and Forerunner. They were joined by a group of angel investors that included Salesforce Inc. CEO Marc Benioff and Shopify Inc. CEO Tobi Lütke. Wabi is now valued at $1.25 billion.

San Francisco-based Wabi was launched last year by serial AI entrepreneur Eugenia Kuyda. She previously founded Replika Inc., another consumer AI startup that had more than 35 million users as of last November. Wabi disclosed today that it’s seeing “strong early demand” but didn’t share specific user base numbers.

The company’s service is accessible via Mac, iOS and Android clients. Its interface is built around a group chat tool with an embedded AI assistant. If a group of friends uses a chat session to organize a meet-up, the AI assistant can find nearby restaurants that could serve as a suitable venue. It customizes its suggestions based on conversation details such as the time at which the participants agreed to meet.

The assistant can also make use of information stored in other apps. An integration with Plaid, a financial data sharing platform, enables Wabi to generate personal budgets and flag unused subscriptions that the user should cancel. A Gmail connector powers an alerting feature that notifies consumers about important messages.

Wabi’s AI assistant doubles as a vibe coding tool. Users can create simple apps to automate tasks such as managing to-do lists and planning events. The AI is also capable of generating simple, two-dimensional games that run directly in the chat window.

The chat interface is flanked by a sidebar that contains widgets relevant to the conversation. If a user is planning a trip, Wabi might display flight departure and arrival dates. Restaurant recommendations appear in vertically organized cards that each contain a photo of a venue’s exterior and a brief description.

“We believe Wabi has the power to become an operating system for life, a place where your people, your tools, and your AI come together to help you do more of what matters,” Kuyda said.

If Wabi proves popular among consumers, large market players could decide to launch similar services. Such competition may require the startup to find additional ways of differentiating its software. Some vibe coding startups have trained custom AI models to set their tools apart from more popular alternatives such as OpenAI Group PBC’s Codex. 

Wabi will invest the proceeds from its funding round in growth and product development initiatives. The company’s near-term priorities include the launch of a Windows app.

Image: Wabi