Kong Inc. Explained

Kong Inc.
Company Type:	Private
Founder:	Augusto Marietti (CEO) Marco Palladino (CTO)
Location:	San Francisco
Industry:	Cloud services
Registration:	Required
Language:	English
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

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

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]

Notes and References

1. Web site: ReadWriteWeb - Mashape launches a Marketplace for APIs . 2012-05-22 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120529202713/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/mashape_launches_a_marketplace_for_apis.php . 2012-05-29 . dead .
2. http://mashable.com/2011/06/02/mashape/ Mashable - Try Mashape Marketplace
3. https://techcrunch.com/2011/01/12/the-italian-entrepreneur-who-moved-his-team-and-got-funded-in-19-days/ TechCrunch - The Italian entrepreneur who moved his team and got funded in 19 days
4. http://gigaom.com/cloud/api-market-mashape-raises-1-5m-seed-from-mega-investors/ GigaOm - API Market Mashape raised 1.5M in seed from mega investors
5. https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertobonzio/2011/09/08/bezos-and-schmidt-among-investors-betting-1-5m-on-young-italians-of-mashape/ Forbes Magazine - Bezos and Schmidt among investors betting $1.5M on young Italians of "Mashape"
6. https://techcrunch.com/2011/09/08/mashape-turns-down-acquisition-offers-raises-seed-round-from-big-name-investors/ TechCrunch - Mashape Turns Down Acquisition Offers; Raises Seed Round From Big Name Investors
7. Web site: RapidAPI Buys Mashape Hub to Create World's Largest API Marketplace . eWeek. 25 May 2017 .
8. Web site: RapidAPI acquired the Mashape Marketplace . appDeveloperMagazine.com.
9. Web site: Years after crashing on Travis Kalanich's couch, this founder has raised $18M for his startup, Mashape. techcrunch.com. 23 March 2017 .
10. Web site: The Digital Economy Is The API Economy – And Kong Is King. Forbes.
11. Web site: 2019-10-02. Kong acquires Insomnia, launches Kong Studio for API development. techcrunch.com.
12. https://techcrunch.com/2015/04/28/mashape-open-sources-its-kong-api-management-platform/ TechCrunch - Mashape Open-Sources Its Kong API Management Platform