Kong, a startup focused on cloud API technologies, raised $175 million Series E financing at a valuation of $2 billion.
The round was led by Tiger Global and Balderton and included additional investment from Andreesen Horowitz, Index Ventures and others. Kong has raised $345 million.
According to Kong CEO Augusto Marietti, the funding will help the company build out its API platform to manage, secure and observe internal and external APIs and expand sales operations. Kong is looking to capitalize on a surge in API call demand largely due to cloud connections to large language models.
Constellation ShortList™ API Management (APIM)
Constellation Research analyst Holger Mueller said:
"It's good to see funding going to vendors who can bridge the need of AI for data and process answers. In the 21st century these answers should come from APIs. These capabilities will be critical to power the next wave of genAI, which will be able to look into transaction data and APIs for better automation of next generation applications."
Kong provides an API platform so enterprises in multiple industries can build applications and centralize security, governance and visibility. The company's products include Kong Cloud Gateway, AI Gateway, Mesh, Gateway Manager and Insomnia, a development tool.
