“People used to sit at a desk to ‘Internet’. Then they would get up and stop Internetting. Now they Internet wherever, whenever — even when they don’t think they are doing it.”
That’s Mashery CEO Oren Michels‘ explanation for why his company is growing so quickly. The API management company has just hit 100,000 developers using their service, Michels says. Just about a year ago, that number stood at 35,000. And now they’ve just gotten a big new round of funding to help deal with and maintain that fast expansion.
Mashery has just closed an $11 million Series D round led by OpenView Venture Partners. Also participating were previous investors Cisco, Formative Ventures, 406 Ventures, and First Round Capital. With the funding, Scott Maxwell, senior managing director and founder of OpenView, has taken a board seat.
The new funding brings the total raised to just shy of $25 million. And while Michels declined to give the valuation, he does note that this round was at a “significant premium” over the last round (a $5.5 million one in February of last year).
So what has led to a tripling of developers using Mashery in the past year? Apps, says Michels. It has been mostly Android and iOS leading that charge, obviously. But Michels also notes that the videogame consoles are also driving quite a bit of growth recently.
He also says that Mashery’s technology is now used in some 25,000 live apps out there.
“A great app ‘grants a wish’ — so companies are going to need lots of apps to meet the needs of different groups of customers at different places, times, and use cases,” Michels says. “The only way to make that happen is to have secure, scalable, easy-to-use APIs — that can be the ingredients of the wishes,” he continues.
Cute. And apparently good business.