The competition to create the dominant AI assistant is intensifying, and investors are diversifying their positions. On Thursday, Wabi—an AI application that now brands itself as a "personal agent"—revealed it has secured $55 million in funding at a valuation of $1.25 billion.

The company was founded by Eugenia Kuyda, who had previously started the AI companion venture Replika. Wabi's initial focus was on enabling users to create apps through prompts. But last month, the startup announced a strategic shift toward becoming an AI messenger. Under this new direction—dubbed Wabi 2.0—the platform aims to generate the interfaces users need to accomplish tasks as part of its function as a personal AI agent. According to the company, Wabi could be used to create mini apps for purposes such as meal planning, finding local restaurants, organizing date nights, building fitness routines, designing specialized trivia games, and more.

This latest funding round suggests that Wabi's investors see promise in its new agent-focused approach, particularly as the market for AI agents is currently surging. The viral AI agent Instinct raised another billion dollars at a $10 billion valuation in September. Even Tolan—which offers a cute, muppet-like AI companion designed to help people navigate daily life—recently brought in $30 million.

"Eugenia has a unique sense for where AI is headed and a track record of great taste in building it," said Alex Lim, general partner at IVP, which led the new round, 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."

Additional participants in the round included Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Forerunner, Amazon Alexa Fund, and angel investors such as Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, former Yahoo head Marissa Mayer, former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, and Alex Pall of The Chainsmokers.