(Reuters) -AI software developer platform Replit on Wednesday said it has raised $250 million in a funding round that values the San Francisco-based company at $3 billion, as investors continue to back AI startups.

Valuations for code-generation firms or "code-gen" startups have climbed as companies look to use AI to assist - and in some cases replace - human software engineers.

Replit was valued at just over $1 billion in 2023 after it raised $97.4 million. The company said its annualized revenue rose to $150 million from $2.8 million in less than a year.

The latest financing was led by Prysm Capital and includes Google's AI Futures Fund and Amex Ventures as strategic investors. Existing backers including Andreessen Horowitz - also known as a16z - and Coatue increased their investments.

Companies including Duolingo and Zillow use Replit to build applications. Replit on Wednesday launched Agent 3, an autonomous tool that can test and fix code and build custom agents and workflows.

In May, Cursor, a San Francisco-based code-generation startup that suggests and completes lines of code and can write sections of code autonomously, raised $900 million at a $10 billion valuation.