Replika Founder Eugenia Kuyda Launches Wabi 2.0 AI Assistant
Replika founder Eugenia Kuyda launches Wabi 2.0, a free multiplayer AI assistant that builds custom apps, following a $20 million pre-seed round. for all users.
Summary
On October 19, 2026, Eugenia Kuyda opened Wabi to all users, 12 years after pitching IO, Luka’s functional, pre-deep-learning lifestyle concierge for booking restaurants and vacations. Luka later became AI companion company Replika. Kuyda left as Replika CEO in 2025 and founded Wabi, whose first version offered prompt-built mini apps for sharing with friends, supported by a $20 million pre-seed round.
Wabi 2.0 is a free multiplayer AI messenger with separate agent threads for tasks and long-term goals. Connecting email automatically generates threads and apps, while users can request tools such as weight-loss trackers, local children’s events, shared calendars, restaurant and book lists, schedule trackers and Japanese quizzes. Kuyda positions Wabi against Muse and Instinct, arguing its app-building and divided context avoid overloaded single conversations, which AI researchers say increasingly risk hallucinations, lost context and weakened safeguards. Shared threads work as group chats, with chat-specific access to email, calendars or bank details and visible personal-data requests. Wabi is SOC 2 compliant, runs entirely in the cloud and stores most data in the United States. It remains free, has no settled business model and is discussing another funding round.
Positives
- $20 million in pre-seed funding supported Wabi’s initial prompt-built mini-app platform and its evolution into an agent-led assistant.
- Wabi 2.0 automatically creates personalized threads and apps after users connect email, reducing the need to build software manually.
- Separate task threads aim to prevent the context overload associated with Muse, Instinct and other single-conversation assistants.
- Shared threads combine AI assistance with group chats for couples and families managing calendars, activities, reading and children’s schedules.
- SOC 2 compliance means Wabi’s data-security controls have undergone an independent audit.
Risks & concerns
- Wabi remains free without a settled business model and is already discussing another funding round.
- Email, calendar and bank-account sharing creates significant privacy exposure despite chat-specific permissions and visible data requests.
- Cloud-only operation places most user data in the United States rather than storing it locally on users’ devices.
- Long AI conversations can hallucinate, lose context or bypass safety safeguards, although Wabi’s separate threads are designed to reduce that problem.
- Wabi 2.0 changes direction after users liked personalized software but showed little interest in building mini apps themselves.