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How Kong is driving the future of APIs
From its open-source API gateway to a full platform play, Kong is orchestrating the future of APIs with a growing presence in the Asia-Pacific region
Kong is no longer just the application programming interface (API) gateway provider it was once known for. Since it started in a small garage in Italy, it has evolved into an API platform that addresses a slew of API lifecycle needs, from observability and security to API acceleration.
“The story is unconventional – we started a company called Mashape in a garage in Italy and then we moved to Silicon Valley,” said Augusto Marietti, CEO of Kong, whose initial vision was to create an API marketplace, during an interview with Computer Weekly in Singapore.
While that vision was ahead of its time, it was through Mashape that Kong’s core technology, its API gateway, was born. Recognising the growing need for API management with greater use of APIs, Mashape open-sourced the gateway in 2015. Within six months, it nabbed its first enterprise contract with the Center of Medicare in Baltimore.
The rapid adoption of the open-source API gateway validated its business potential. Mashape’s assets were subsequently sold to another company, and Kong was formed in 2017, focusing entirely on the burgeoning API platform.
The technological foundation underpinning Kong’s platform has evolved over time. While initially built on the Nginx web server; OpenResty, an Nginx distribution; and the PostgreSQL database, it has become a “multi-technology stack”, according to Saju Pillai, Kong’s senior vice-president and head of engineering.
This includes embracing Envoy for Kong’s service mesh, Kuma, and a significant investment in Rust, which Pillai believes is “the future of networking”. This multi-protocol, multi-topology approach ensures Kong can connect clients and services using various technologies, from HTTP and gRPC to Kafka.
But Kong’s platform strategy goes beyond connecting services. It has also created a unified control plane to manage all runtime environments, including meshes, ingress controllers, and gateways. This allows for an “end-to-end experience that’s pretty unique,” said Marietti, adding that this helps to address the problem of API sprawl which has plagued large organisations for the past decade, simplifying management and improving cost control.
Added features
Beyond its core platform, Kong is also adding features like API portals, catalogues, advanced analytics, and even API monetisation tools. “We are not just the ‘bit-moving’ company,” said Pillai, adding that Kong supports the entire API lifecycle on a single platform, reducing complexity and supplier sprawl.
The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models has further underscored the need for a consolidated API platform. “LLMs are creating more API calls,” said Marietti, adding that Kong’s AI gateway is specifically designed to handle LLM-specific policies such as token rate limiting and semantic caching.
He also sees a parallel between the evolution of microservices and the current LLM landscape, predicting that the API gateway will become essential for managing the growing complexity of AI connectivity.
At the same time, Kong is seeing a shift towards asynchronous APIs, event-driven architectures and complex orchestration use cases, all of which its platform is evolving to address. In the Asia-Pacific region, Marietti observed a growing adoption of microservices, multi-cloud environments and a greater openness to cloud technologies compared with just five years ago.
Even as it grows its business, the company is staying true to its open-source roots. “We consider ourselves an open-source company first,” said Pillai, adding that Kong actively recruits from the open source community and fosters open collaboration through community meetups.
Amid the potential tensions between open source and commercial interests, Kong takes a pragmatic approach, donating projects like Kuma to the Cloud Native Computing Foundation while retaining others for faster innovation. It also participates in and sponsors events like KubeCon.
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Addressing the challenge of monetising open source, Marietti pointed to the transformative power of cloud. “When you go cloud, you’re selling an orange,” he explained, differentiating cloud offerings from the open source “apple”. This involves selling service-level agreements, infrastructure and a different operational model, reducing the perceived conflict between free and paid versions.
“With cloud, we can improve our efficiency through our understanding of our own stack and deliver a lower total cost of ownership,” said Pillai. “We also make it easier for you to start small and consume our services on a utilisation basis, instead of working with a sales guy on a big deal.”
Richard Koh, Kong’s vice-president of Asia-Pacific and Japan (APJ), added that focusing on major enterprises with business-critical applications and highlighting the value proposition of Kong’s cloud offerings, which account for almost 30% of its revenue, are key to bridging this gap.
Kong’s growth trajectory has been impressive, with nearly 700 employees globally and a 40% year-over-year increase in revenue. The APJ region contributes around 15% of its business, with further expansions on the cards in markets like India.
It recently secured $175m in Series E funding, with a mix of primary and secondary transactions at a $2bn valuation. The round was led by Tiger Global and co-led by new investor Balderton, with additional new participation from Teachers’ Venture Growth, the late-stage venture and growth investment arm of Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, and 137 Ventures, among others.
The funding round brings Kong’s total capital raised to $345m. The company said it will use the new funds to expand in international markets, enhance its products with AI capabilities and grow its customer experience teams.
