These are busy times for API specialist Apigee after the Palo Alto-based company closed a $20 million funding round, led by new investor Focus Ventures, to take its total venture capitalist backing to more than $72 million. Existing investors Bay Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, SAP Ventures and Third Point Ventures also took part in the round.
The company, which “reduces the complexity of delivering apps and building apps,” has been expanding on all fronts recently, and the influx of new capital will see that continue forthwith. Plans are afoot to use the revenue to scale up marketing, development and sales, not to mention expand its presence into new markets.
“There will soon be a trillion mobile devices connected to the Internet, and consumers are spending more time on mobile apps than on the Web. Every business — from technology start-ups to bricks-and-mortar giants — needs an API to compete in a digital economy that is increasingly dominated by apps as the primary vehicle for communicating, connecting and ecommerce,” Chet Kapoor, CEO of Apigee, said.
The company has just landed in Europe, after opening an office in London in June, putting it closer to key customer Telefónica, and further expansions into new markets are likely to strengthen relationships with existing and prospective business partners.
Apigee took its relationship with Telefónica to the next stage a fortnight ago, when it inked a deal with the operator’s digital arm to become the partner for its API management platform. The Spain-headquartered telecom giant had worked with Apigee on its Bluevia API console since June 2011.
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The company has since developed its service for the telecom industry, after it completed the acquisition of technology assets from telecom alliance WAC, making it easier to for the apps its powers to work across telecom networks worldwide.
That same day, it also linked up with the GSMA, announcing a partnership that will help open its technology up to the global organisation’s 800 operator members.
The company also scored a major deal with Walgreens. That partnership saw the retail giant introduce a developer portal, which is powering a number of interesting initiatives. These include a new Kicksend feature that allows users to order prints of their photos at Walgreens direct from their smartphone.
Already Apigee claims to have recruited 20 percent of the top 100 companies listed in the Fortune 500 as customers, and it sees more than 100 billion API calls run through its cloud-based Apigee Enterprise API platform.
Image via Flickr / 401 (K) 2012
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