Replit Acquires Icelandic Duo Company Test13 to Use AI for Rapid Prototyping of Profitable SaaS, Keeping What Sticks

The Icelandic duo company Test 13 has joined Replit. Co-founder Viktor Margeirsson stated that eighteen months ago, he and Gunnar Kolbeinsson started with two beliefs: to use AI to rapidly prototype profitable SaaS, keeping what sticks; and to reduce local software service pricing to 20-40% of competitors. The platform made this possible.

He noted that in eighteen months, revenue exceeded $700,000, with a year-on-year growth rate of over 400%. The company rule is not to hire more people but to use agents to supplement the workforce, and they do not accept external financing. Viktor stepped down from his product manager position, claiming he cannot code, and after trying V0, Lovable, Base44, and Bolt, he got stuck at launch. His partner had used Replit in the past, and all their products have since been delivered on that platform.

Among their seven self-developed products, four were killed early. SMS marketing Diskó generated about $20,000 to $30,000 per month with a gross margin of about 70%; the OEM business had single orders ranging from $20,000 to $180,000. For the full year of 2025, they estimate around $120,000, enough to support the two founders; entering 2026, they conservatively estimated about $1.1 million with Diskó included, raising per capita revenue from about $60,000 to about $550,000. They also created Autobot, which they claim can cut custom software costs by 90%, delivering a runnable initial version in one hour, with no charge if unsatisfied.

Replit first selected them into its global ambassador program, with only ten spots available, and they are the only ones from Europe, based on their public platform demonstrating real deliveries. Viktor wrote to founder Amjad Masad, stating that the Icelandic market is too small and he feels like an observer on the frontier, wanting to place the next decade at the center of AI reconstruction. Months later, the deal was made. He has been included in the twenty-person AI advisory committee by the president's office and has led four founders in Replit's revenue competition.

The buyer's valuation is about $9 billion after a round of financing in March at around $4 billion, claiming to target a recurring revenue of $1 billion by the end of the year, with over 60 million global users, and has opened its first overseas office in London. The acquisition amount has not been disclosed. What was acquired is not just another small team but a set of methods already validated in a small market: fewer people, low prices, rapid kills, and using the same set of agents to parallel OEM and self-development.

In market mechanics, the buyer is a platform that needs cases to prove that "non-engineers can also create chargeable software," while the seller is a two-person studio that has turned the platform into a factory. This is a case-driven model recovery: ambassador content first helps Replit capture conversions from tools like Lovable, then incorporates the successful pricing and delivery into its system. Funds flow from the $9 billion valuation financing account to the acquisition price and the two salaries; the beneficiary is Replit, which needs a European benchmark, while the pressured parties are local software companies still pricing by person-days and investors who must explain why a $9 billion platform would buy a $700,000 revenue shop.

Source: Public Information