# Eugenia Kuyda

> Eugenia Kuyda is the San Francisco-based founder and CEO of Wabi, a social platform for creating, discovering, sharing and remixing prompt-built mini apps. A former Moscow journalist, she previously founded Luka and created Replika, an AI companion that reached 35 million users by 2025. In 2025 she launched Wabi in beta and announced a $20 million pre-seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz, extending a career-long interest in conversational interfaces, personal software and the ways ordinary people use technology to connect.

- **Role:** Founder and CEO at Wabi
- **Organizations:** Wabi, Replika, Luka, Gradus, Afisha, Novaya Gazeta
- **From:** Moscow, Russia
- **Education:** MA in International Journalism, Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), MBA in Finance, London Business School
- **Known for:** Founded Replika, which TechCrunch reported had 35 million users in November 2025., Raised $20 million in pre-seed funding for Wabi in a round led by Andreessen Horowitz., Named to the 2016 Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list in Technology for Luka.

## Career timeline

- **2000s** — Worked in Russian journalism, including at Novaya Gazeta and as editor-in-chief at Afisha.
- **2012** — Built Bribr, a crowdsourced app for reporting bribe requests.
- **2013-2014** — Started Luka, initially a conversational restaurant recommendation and booking product.
- **2015** — After the death of her close friend Roman Mazurenko, used his messages to create a private memorial chatbot.
- **2016** — Named to Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe in Technology for Luka.
- **2017** — Launched Replika publicly as a personal AI companion.
- **2018** — Released Replika's underlying conversational model as the open-source project CakeChat.
- **2024** — Concluded her tenure as Replika CEO after roughly a decade leading the company.
- **2025** — Founded Wabi and launched its beta for creating, discovering, sharing and remixing mini apps.
- **2025** — Announced a $20 million pre-seed round for Wabi led by Andreessen Horowitz.
- **2026** — Reported that Wabi was available on Android and that user creations had received tens of millions of views.

## Achievements

- Founded Replika, which TechCrunch reported had 35 million users in November 2025.
- Raised $20 million in pre-seed funding for Wabi in a round led by Andreessen Horowitz.
- Named to the 2016 Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list in Technology for Luka.
- Released the conversational model behind Replika as the open-source CakeChat project in 2018.
- Built consumer conversational AI products years before the mainstream generative AI boom.

## Latest updates

- **2026-09** — Said Wabi had launched on Android, that people were increasingly sharing and remixing mini apps socially, and that videos of user creations had accumulated tens of millions of views.
- **2026-03** — Discussed building Wabi as a second-time solo founder and organizing an early team with several former founders.
- **2025-11** — Announced Wabi's $20 million pre-seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz and described the product as a social platform for personal software.
- **2025-10** — Appeared at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco and launched Wabi in beta.

## Links

- Website: https://wabi.ai
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eugenia-kuyda-638a8a1b
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/ekuyda
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/kuyda
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ekuyda/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kuyda

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/eugenia-kuyda
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-09-28