RapidAPI, backed by Microsoft's VC fund M12, closes $25 million

On Tuesday, the startup RapidAPI announced it closed $25 million in series B funding from Microsoft's venture fund M12, as well as DNS Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Green Bay Capital.

Investors decided to fund the company, which started from a hackathon tool, in part because of the boom in developer-focused companies like Twilio, Stripe, and SendGrid.

Now, RapidAPI has partnered with large companies like Microsoft and Google, and is used by over a million developers.

Read more on the Business Insider homepage.

The idea for the startup RapidAPI first came about from a hackathon tool to help neophyte programmers.

Back in 2014, RapidAPI founder and CEO Iddo Gino had helped organize World Hackathon Day in Tel Aviv. Many of the people participating were beginners and had little experience coding. As the name suggests, a hackathon is an intensive coding event that can last hours or days, with participants teaming up to work on small projects.

“The idea behind these hackathons where to get people excited about software development or software engineering,” Gino told Business Insider. “A lot of them were immature in the field of programming and not coming in with a lot of experience.”

Gino realized that he could give those newbies some real help by making it easier for them to use APIs, or application programming interfaces. APIs are the way by which programs “talk” to each other, to perform specific tasks. Using Facebook to log in to Spotify, for example, uses the Facebook Login API.

And so, Gino created a page called “Awesome APIs,” a directory full of some of the most popular APIs, as a resource for hackathon participants. Soon, however, people started using this page not only at the hackathon Gino organized, but also for their own personal edification.

“We saw there was real value for [APIs] and we wanted to turn it into a product offering,” Gino said.

“Awesome APIs” soon evolved into RapidAPI, a startup making tools to help developers pick and manage their API usage. And on Tuesday, it announced that it closed $25 million in Series B funding led by M12, Microsoft's venture fund. DNS Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Green Bay Capital also participated.

In total, RapidAPI has now raised $37.5 million.

Just for developers

RapidAPI says it now has over a million developers and 10,000 public APIs on the platform. With RapidAPI, developers can search for API's, share them with each other, and connect them with other apps they're using. Developers can find the right API's they need, as well as test and monitor them right from their browsers.

It also has a product for business teams to use to publish, share, manage, and collaborate on public and private APIs that their developers are using.

When RapidAPI first received its seed funding in 2015, investors saw potential because of the boom of API-focused companies like Twilio, Stripe, and SendGrid. Gino says that he sees API's as the “fundamental building blocks” for software.

“It all comes to finding investors who understand the vision of what we want to build,” Gino said. “Developers are winning the charge and helping those companies decide and understand what tools and technology they should be using in the future.”

'A lot of handholding'

Since then, RapidAPI has partnered with even more API providers. Originally, Gino says, starting these partnerships was a major challenge, and RapidAPI had to prove its track record to other companies. He had to convince them that allowing more people to use the API through RapidAI will bring value to those companies.

“Initially it was a lot of handholding with those API providers and explaining why we think those APIs will be a great fit,” Gino said.

Now, RapidAPI has been able to partner with large companies like Microsoft and Google, and Gino says that smaller companies are following suit after seeing the popularity of the product.

Read more: 'Low code' and 'no code' products is the hottest trend in enterprise startups

Outside of developing its platform, Gino also wants to continue reaching more developers, such as by writing blog posts that help developers discover the right API to use for their app or even start their own company.

“The amount of money to start a software-based business is a lot lower,” Gino said. “Now what's happening is becoming even simpler. You don't need to write a lot of code. You can consume a lot of that functionality from API's. That's what gets me excited about being in this space. I really think APIs are part of that story.”

周二，创业公司RapidAPI宣布从微软风险投资基金M12，DNS Capital，Andreessen Horowitz和Green Bay Capital获得2500万美元的B系列资金。投资者决定资助该公司，该公司从黑客马拉松工具开始，部分原因是Twilio，Stripe和SendGrid等以开发人员为中心的公司的蓬勃发展。现在，RapidAPI已与微软和谷歌等大公司合作，有超过一百万开发人员使用。阅读更多有关Business Insider主页的内容。创业公司RapidAPI的想法首先来自帮助新手程序员的黑客马拉松工具。早在2014年， RapidAPI的创始人兼首席执行官Iddo Gino帮助在特拉维夫组织了世界黑客马拉松日。许多参与的人都是初学者，编码经验不足。顾名思义，黑客马拉松是一种密集的编码事件，可以持续数小时或数天，参与者可以组成小型项目。 “这些黑客马拉松背后的想法让人们对软件开发或软件工程感到兴奋，”Gino告诉Business Insider。 “他们中的很多人在编程领域都不成熟，而且没有很多经验。”Gino意识到他可以通过让他们更容易使用API或应用程序来为这些新手提供一些真正的帮助。编程接口。 API是程序相互“交谈”，执行特定任务的方式。例如，使用Facebook登录Spotify，使用Facebook登录API。 因此，Gino创建了一个名为“Awesome APIs”的页面，这是一个充满了一些最流行的API的目录，作为黑客马拉松参与者的资源。然而，不久，人们开始使用这个页面，不仅是在黑客入侵吉诺组织，而且也是为了他们自己的个人启发。 “我们看到[API]具有真正的价值，我们希望将其变成产品，”Gino说。“很棒的API”很快演变成了RapidAPI，一个帮助开发人员的创业工具挑选和管理他们的AP用法。周二，它宣布以微软风险投资基金M12为首的B轮融资收入2500万美元。 DNS Capital，Andreessen Horowitz和Green Bay Capital也参与其中。总的来说，RapidAPI现已筹集了3750万美元。 仅供开发人员使用RapidAPI，它现在拥有超过一百万的开发人员和10,000个公共API。使用RapidAPI，开发人员可以搜索API，彼此共享，并将它们与他们正在使用的其他应用程序连接。开发人员可以找到他们需要的正确API，以及直接从浏览器测试和监控它们。 它还有一个产品供业务团队用于发布，共享，管理和协作开发人员使用的公共和私有API。当RapidAPI在2015年首次获得种子资金时，投资者看到了由于像Twilio，Stripe和SendGrid这样的以API为重点的公司的蓬勃发展。 Gino说他认为API是软件的“基本构建块”。 “这一切都是为了找到了解我们想要建立的愿景的投资者，”吉诺说。 “开发人员正在赢得指控并帮助这些公司决定并了解他们将来应该使用哪些工具和技术。”“很多手持”从那时起，RapidAPI与更多的API合作供应商。最初，Gino说，启动这些合作伙伴关系是一项重大挑战，RapidAPI必须向其他公司证明自己的业绩记录。他必须说服他们允许更多人通过RapidAI使用API将为这些公司带来价值。“最初，他们与这些API提供商进行了大量交易，并解释了为什么我们认为这些API非常适合”Gino说。“现在，RapidAPI已经能够与微软和谷歌等大公司合作，而Gino表示，在看到该产品受欢迎后，小公司也纷纷效仿。 阅读更多：”低代码“和”无代码“产品是企业创业公司最热门的趋势选择其平台，Gino还希望继续吸引更多的开发人员，例如撰写博客文章，帮助开发人员发现适合他们应用的API，甚至创办自己的公司。”基于软件的业务要低得多，“吉诺说。 ”现在发生的事情变得更加简单。你不需要编写很多代码。你可以从API中消耗掉很多功能。这让我对进入这个领域感到兴奋。我真的认为API是其中的一部分那个故事。