These days, APIs are a must for just about every web service. It’s no longer enough to simply be a web site, everyone wants to be a platform, and APIs are the hooks that enable that by way of data. Since 2006, Mashery has existed as a company to both enable APIs for companies and manage them. And today that vision is being rewarded again with a $5.5 million Series C round of funding.
The round, led by Cisco, is also being participated in by existing investors, Formative Ventures, First Round Capital, and 406 Ventures. Cisco, which is a key player in networking, video, mobile, and cloud services is a good investor for Mashery to pick up as the web continues to evolve to new devices and move towards the cloud. The Cisco investment should also help open new businesses to the idea of using Mashery’s services.
“It’s been interesting to see the market for API services develop. While there are still plenty of people who can’t even spell ‘API’, we’re seeing some amazing brands not just testing the waters of innovation for the sake of innovation, but actually driving significant revenue and business growth through their API,” Mashery CEO Oren Michels tells us. He continues, “More and more companies are seeing the power of putting their services – whether they be e-commerce, media, data, or anything else – where their customers want to interact with them rather than expecting their customers to do everything at the company’s website. Opening an API is the fastest, easiest and cheapest way to interact with users on third party platforms and mobile devices, and to enable new services that they couldn’t offer themselves. I’m really excited to see how this will grow in the next few years.”
With the new money, Mashery will expand its product as well as hire more people in sales and marketing to further cement itself in certain verticals. Currently, Mashery has over 40,000 developers connected to its network which includes clients such as Best Buy, Netflix, Reuters, the New York Times, and Trulia.
Mashery had raised $8.2 million over its previous rounds, so the new money brings that total up to $13.7 million. In the space, Mashery competes with 3scale.