Replit Inc., a startup with an artificial intelligence platform that enables users to create websites and mobile apps, has raised $400 million in funding.

The company announced the investment on Wednesday. The capital was provided by a consortium that included Databricks Ventures, Okta Ventures, Shaquille O’Neal, Y Combinator and others. Replit is now valued $9 billion, three times what it was worth after its previous round.

The company’s platform enables users to build software with natural language prompts. Replit not only generates the code that a customer requests but also provides the cloud infrastructure necessary to run it. Customers also have access to various other backend building blocks.

Before users deploy a Replit-generated application, they can check it for vulnerabilities using a built-in cybersecurity scanner. The tool searches for bugs in not only a workload’s code base but also its external dependencies. Replit’s Enterprise plan, which is geared towards large organizations, includes additional cybersecurity features including single sign-on support.

It applications keep their information in a managed SQL database operated by the company. It’s powered by Neon, a managed PostgreSQL service that Replit investor Databricks Inc. acquired last year. Another managed service called App Storage holds non-relational files such as videos.

Replit announced its funding round alongside a new iteration of the AI engine that powers its platform. The company built Agent 4 called using Agent 3, the previous version of the engine. The main improvement is a significantly expanded set of graphic design features.

Developers can ask Agent 4 to generate multiple variations of a website or app interface. From there, they can use prompts to customize the version they pick. It’s also possible to refine interface elements manually using a toolbar that contains design controls.

Agent 4 enables users to add new elements to a design by sketching them. According to Replit, the software can turn simple drawings into relatively complex visual assets such as three-dimensional animations. It can carry out multiple design and coding tasks in parallel using AI agents to speed up development.

The platform has been adopted by employees at 85% of the Fortune 500, according to the company. One of the enterprise use cases that it supports is software prototyping. Developers can use its platform to create the initial version of a website or app in hours instead of the weeks usually required for the task, it says. Nontechnical teams, meanwhile, can create simple business applications for internal use.

Replit will use its latest funding to grow its presence in international markets. In addition, it plans to build new features and purchase computing infrastructure.

Image: Replit