**Replika Founder Lands $20M Pre-Seed for Wabi, Envisioning the ‘YouTube of Apps’**
Eugenia Kuyda, the visionary behind the well-known AI companion Replika, has successfully secured a significant $20 million in pre-seed funding for her latest venture, Wabi. The ambitious startup aims to redefine app discovery and interaction by positioning itself as the “YouTube of apps.”
This substantial capital injection at such an early stage highlights strong investor confidence in Kuyda’s ability to innovate within the tech landscape. While specific details about Wabi’s platform are still unfolding, the “YouTube of apps” concept implies a dynamic, video-centric ecosystem. Here, users and creators would share and consume video content showcasing app functionalities, offering reviews, providing tutorials, and demonstrating practical usage scenarios, moving beyond traditional screenshots and text descriptions.
Wabi seeks to address a growing need in the ever-expanding mobile app market for more engaging and informative ways to explore applications. By enabling a rich, contextual video experience, Kuyda’s new company aims to streamline the decision-making process for users and empower them with a deeper understanding of an app’s capabilities before committing to a download. This early funding positions Wabi for rapid development and signals a potential shift in how we discover and engage with the digital tools that power our lives.