Kong builds a unified API platform that enables organizations to manage, secure and observe both internal and external APIs and AI models. Its product suite includes AI Gateway, Konnect, Insomnia and API runtimes such as Kong Gateway and Kong Mesh. The company positions its platform as infrastructure for API-first and AI-driven applications, aiming to help customers consolidate disparate API systems and accelerate developer productivity. Kong plans to use new funding to accelerate global go-to-market expansion, enhance AI-infused product capabilities, and invest in customer experience teams. Leadership highlighted growing demand for API traffic driven by large language models and other AI use cases. The company serves customers ranging from startups to Fortune 500 enterprises and emphasizes secure, scalable API governance and visibility. Kong builds a SaaS-based service connectivity platform and managed services to connect APIs and microservices across clouds, Kubernetes, VMs and data centers. Its Kong Konnect platform is a full-stack service connectivity offering delivered as a service and built on an open-source core including Kong Gateway, CNCF’s Kuma and Insomnia. The platform aims to provide universal, reliable, observable and secure connectivity at the edge, within applications and between applications. Kong plans to use new capital to scale go-to-market operations, grow engineering and customer experience teams, and accelerate cloud connectivity with Kong Konnect. The company closed a $100M Series D that brought total funding to $171M and tripled its valuation to $1.4B since Series C. Operational metrics include Kong Gateway exceeding 220 million total downloads and 1.5 million monthly active instances; Kong added Global 2000 customers such as Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Papa John’s and Siemens, tripled its small business and mid-market customers, and was recognized on the Inc. 5000 and Deloitte Technology Fast 500 with 1,908% revenue growth over three years. Kong is an open-core API management and lifecycle platform built on a popular open-source gateway. The company is focused on building a broader service control platform it likens to the “nervous system” for an organization’s software architecture. Kong plans to invest heavily in security and to add more machine-learning capabilities over time (referred to internally as Kong Brain). The firm is also prioritizing international expansion, with increased focus on Europe and the Asia Pacific market. Kong doubled its headcount in 2018 and now serves more than 100 enterprise customers, including Yahoo! Japan, Ferrari, SoulCycle and WeWork. Financially, the company has raised a total of $71 million to date, including the current $43 million Series C. Mashape operates an API marketplace and sells an "air traffic controller-like" technology that manages APIs, packaged as its core product Kong. The company pivoted from a broader API marketplace to commercializing the internal routing/management technology for enterprises. Mashape says more than 30 companies pay six-figure annual subscriptions for Kong. The startup has about 25 employees and reported it turned cash-flow positive in December. Competitors named in the article include Apigee and Tibco's Mashery. Its product targets development teams building software from microservices and APIs in large organizations. Mashape operates a unified marketplace where developers can find, sell, distribute and consume public and private APIs. The platform offers a free tool to help API providers monetize (billing, monthly charges, call limits and per-call pricing) and is building a social layer to improve discoverability and trust. Mashape launched in private beta last June and has grown its catalog from 110 to nearly 200 APIs in three months while already beginning to generate revenue. The company, an Italian startup transplanted to San Francisco, declined acquisition offers to remain independent and pursue venture funding. Mashape is also partnering with Rapleaf’s $1M "Personalization Fund," giving its community priority access to grants, data and services. The product roadmap emphasizes community-driven discovery and monetization to attract startups, SMBs and larger enterprise API consumers.

Total raised

$338M

Funding rounds

6

Latest round

Series E

Latest activity

Nov 2024