US-based application programming interface (API) management platform RapidAPI secured $150m yesterday in a series D round led by internet and telecommunications group SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2.
Software provider Microsoft took part in the round through its M12 unit, while Andreessen Horowitz, Green Bay Ventures, Grove Ventures and Qumra Capital and Viola Growth also participated. It valued the company at $1bn.
RapidAPI has built an online marketplace that helps developers and enterprise customers identify and use publicly available APIs, merging them with internal and external interfaces already in use.
Nagraj Kashyap, managing partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers, which manages Vision Fund 2, said: “Demand for digital solutions and software innovation is increasing rapidly, and without enough developers, the world needs APIs to continue building software.
“We believe that RapidAPI plays a critical role in supporting the API economy and has demonstrated impressive growth and execution to accelerate developer adoption and supply of APIs.”
M12 had already participated in RapidAPI’s $60m series C round, which was led by Green Bay Ventures in April 2021 and which included Stripes, Andreessen Horowitz, DNS Capital, Viola Growth and Grove Ventures.
The company had closed a $50m series B round in mid-2020, when M12, Andreessen Horowitz, Green Bay Ventures, DNS Capital and Grove Ventures co-led a $25m second tranche which followed a first close backed by the first four the previous year.
Andreessen Horowitz led RapidAPI’s $9m series A round in 2018, participating with Green Bay Ventures, SV Angel and Tony Jamous. It came after a $3.5m seed round two years earlier that was also led by Andreessen Horowitz and backed by 500 Startups, FundersClub, Green Bay Capital, SV Angel and Jamous.
