After nine years of grinding, Replit finally found its market. Can it keep it? | TechCrunch
Key Takeaways
- Replit closed a $250 million funding round led by Prysm Capital, nearly tripling its valuation to $3 billion.
- The funding followed massive, unprecedented revenue growth, jumping from $2.8 million last year to $150 million in annualized revenue in under a year.
- CEO Amjad Masad previously struggled for years to find product-market fit, leading to a painful decision to cut the company's staff by 50% last year.
- The turnaround was sparked by the launch of Replit Agent, an AI coding tool that acts as a 'true software engineering partner.'
- Replit is now shifting its focus from professional developers to its long-term mission of creating a billion programmers from non-technical backgrounds.
Replit, the Bay Area-based company focused on democratizing programming, recently closed a $250 million funding round led by Prysm Capital, pushing its valuation to $3 billion, a remarkable feat given its challenging history. CEO Amjad Masad has been pursuing this mission since 2009, enduring multiple failed business models and years where revenue stagnated around $2.8 million annually. Last year, facing unsustainability, Masad made the difficult decision to reduce the company's headcount by 50%. The subsequent success was catalyzed by the launch of Replit Agent, described as the world's first agent-based coding experience capable of debugging and deployment. This innovation spurred massive revenue growth, soaring from $2.8 million last year to $150 million in annualized revenue in less than a year. Following this success, Replit pivoted away from competing with professional developer tools to focus on its audacious goal of creating a billion new programmers, primarily from non-technical backgrounds.
