Kong Inc.

Kong Inc.
Type of business	Private
Available in	English
Founded	October 2017
Headquarters	San Francisco
Founder(s)	Augusto Marietti (CEO) ; Marco Palladino (CTO)
Industry	Cloud services
URL	konghq.com
Registration	Required
Current status	Active

Kong Inc. is a software company that provides open-source platforms and cloud services for managing, monitoring, and scaling application programming interfaces (APIs) and microservices . Some of the products offered by Kong Inc. include: Kong Gateway, an open-source API gateway; Kong Enterprise, an API platform that is built on top of Kong Gateway; Kong Konnect, a service connectivity platform; Kuma, an open-source service mesh; Kong Mesh, an enterprise-grade service mesh that is built on top of Kuma; and Insomnia, an open-source API design and testing tool.

History [ edit ]

The original product was first developed in 2009 in Milan , Italy and first incorporated in the US as Mashape, Inc. The original project was a mash-up (web application hybrid) platform used to aggregate different functions and UI elements from third-party products and services. While developing the product the team dealt with a number of APIs, which inspired the founders to create a unified hub to organize the growing market of APIs. In November 2010 Mashape appeared online as an Alpha product ^[1] and launched in private Beta in June 2011. ^[2] The team raised the first funds in the US. ^[3] In 2010, Mashape received its first angel funding and a further $1,500,000 in seed funding. ^[4]^[5] Mashape then rejected some acquisition offers in 2011. ^[6]

In 2015 Mashape launched an open source project called Kong, which later helped the company secure an $18 million in Series B funding. Subsequently, with the intention of pivoting the company's focus to its new Kong business, Mashape sold API Marketplace to RapidAPI, ^[7]^[8] and rebranded the company to Kong Inc. ^[9]^[10]

In 2019, Kong acquired Insomnia, an open-source API testing platform. ^[11]

Technology [ edit ]

In 2015, Mashape released Kong, an open-source management layer for APIs and Microservices that is built on top of Nginx and Cassandra / PostgreSQL with the claim of improving performance and reliability. Kong is the main engine of Mashape's marketplace. ^[12]

References [ edit ]

^ "ReadWriteWeb - Mashape launches a Marketplace for APIs" . Archived from the original on 2012-05-29 . Retrieved 2012-05-22 .
^ Mashable - Try Mashape Marketplace
^ TechCrunch - The Italian entrepreneur who moved his team and got funded in 19 days
^ GigaOm - API Market Mashape raised 1.5M in seed from mega investors
^ Forbes Magazine - Bezos and Schmidt among investors betting $1.5M on young Italians of "Mashape"
^ TechCrunch - Mashape Turns Down Acquisition Offers; Raises Seed Round From Big Name Investors
^ "RapidAPI Buys Mashape Hub to Create World's Largest API Marketplace" . eWeek . 25 May 2017.
^ "RapidAPI acquired the Mashape Marketplace" . appDeveloperMagazine.com .
^ "Years after crashing on Travis Kalanich's couch, this founder has raised $18M for his startup, Mashape" . techcrunch.com . 23 March 2017.
^ "The Digital Economy Is The API Economy ? And Kong Is King" . Forbes .
^ "Kong acquires Insomnia, launches Kong Studio for API development" . techcrunch.com . 2019-10-02.
^ TechCrunch - Mashape Open-Sources Its Kong API Management Platform

[1] "ReadWriteWeb - Mashape launches a Marketplace for APIs" . Archived from the original on 2012-05-29 . Retrieved 2012-05-22 .

[2] Mashable - Try Mashape Marketplace

[3] TechCrunch - The Italian entrepreneur who moved his team and got funded in 19 days

[4] GigaOm - API Market Mashape raised 1.5M in seed from mega investors

[5] Forbes Magazine - Bezos and Schmidt among investors betting $1.5M on young Italians of "Mashape"

[6] TechCrunch - Mashape Turns Down Acquisition Offers; Raises Seed Round From Big Name Investors

[7] "RapidAPI Buys Mashape Hub to Create World's Largest API Marketplace" . eWeek . 25 May 2017.

[8] "RapidAPI acquired the Mashape Marketplace" . appDeveloperMagazine.com .

[9] "Years after crashing on Travis Kalanich's couch, this founder has raised $18M for his startup, Mashape" . techcrunch.com . 23 March 2017.

[10] "The Digital Economy Is The API Economy ? And Kong Is King" . Forbes .

[11] "Kong acquires Insomnia, launches Kong Studio for API development" . techcrunch.com . 2019-10-02.

[12] TechCrunch - Mashape Open-Sources Its Kong API Management Platform

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