Amjad Masad grew up in Amman with no laptop. He walked to an internet cafe to borrow a computer and reinstalled his tools each time. In the early 2000s he led Counter-Strike teams to a tournament in Turkey. At university he hacked the system to change his grades, then helped the school harden it.
After Codecademy and Facebook, he co-founded Replit in 2016 with his brother Faris and his wife Haya Odeh. Most investors passed. In 2018 it raised a $4.5 million seed from Andreessen Horowitz and Y Combinator, and in 2020 about 2,500 community investors joined a WeFunder campaign.
In 2019 he paused Replit to be with his dying mother. In late 2023 growth stalled and the company cut its education product, and in 2024 it laid off 30 people. Replit Agent launched in September 2024.
Replit raised $250 million at $3 billion in September 2025 and a $400 million Series D at $9 billion on 11 March 2026. In July 2025 its AI agent deleted a client's database during a code freeze.