UPDATED 14:37 EDT / JUNE 11 2020

CLOUD

API startup Postman reels in $150M funding round at $2B valuation

Postman Inc., the startup behind a popular platform for building application programming interfaces that’s used by 11 million developers worldwide, has raised $150 million in fresh funding at a $2 billion valuation.

The funding round, announced today, is the third for the six-year-old startup so far. Insight Partners served as lead investor, with participation from returning backers CRV and Nexus Venture Partners. Postman has raised more than $200 million in total funding to date.

Postman’s namesake cloud-based platform serves a similar role for APIs as GitHub does for code. It provides an online hub where companies can make their applications’ programming interfaces available to the developers who work with them. Postman also offers an array of features to simplify various aspects of the API development process, including prototyping, testing and the production of documentation.

Postman is used by software teams as a collaboration tool. Developers share files and code related to an API they’re working on with colleagues, as well as provide resources for the end-users who use the API. A machine learning startup selling a product recommendation API, for instance, could employ Postman to exchange feedback with retailers that use it in their e-commerce stores. 

Postman’s growing user base of 11 million developers so far has helped it establish a strong foothold in the enterprise. The startup boasts an installed base of about a half-million organizations worldwide, including tech giants such as Box Inc., Shopify Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc.

Joyce Lin, a senior development advocate at Postman, dropped by SiliconANGLE Media’s theCUBE studio last year at Cisco DevNet Create 2019. Lin provided some insights into the product development approach that has helped Postman position its platform as a mainstay of software projects in just six years. 

“We do listen to our community,” Lin said in the interview (below). “If they are having a pain point, we try to aggregate all those voices and then come out with a cohesive roadmap. Because what might be the loudest voice — or even a lot of voices — might not be what’s right for the tool.”

Another important component of Postman’s model is what Chief Executive Abhinav Asthana (pictured) called in a blog post today the “API network effect.” The fact that the company’s platform has a strong collaboration component helps it rapidly gain additional users in a company once an initial group of developers adopts it.

“Within the organization, the more users and teams that are added and connected, the more APIs that are discovered, shared and utilized,” Asthana wrote. “Over time, these APIs that teams create will organically spread from team to team and department to department, unlocking data and knowledge-sharing within the organization.”

Postman said it will use the new $150 million in funding to speed up feature development initiatives. As part of the effort, the startup plans to double its current 250-person workforce within the next year.

Photo: Postman

A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:

Your vote of support is important to us and it helps us keep the content FREE.

One click below supports our mission to provide free, deep, and relevant content.  

Join our community on YouTube

Join the community that includes more than 15,000 #CubeAlumni experts, including Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy, Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, and many more luminaries and experts.

“TheCUBE is an important partner to the industry. You guys really are a part of our events and we really appreciate you coming and I know people appreciate the content you create as well” – Andy Jassy

THANK YOU