Cloud-API startup Kong valued at around $2 billion in a new funding round led by Tiger Global

• Kong offers cloud-based APIs, the pipes through which much of the internet flows.
• It's valued at about $2 billion in a new funding round led by Tiger Global Management, sources say.
• Kong did not respond to a request for comment. Tiger declined to comment.

Kong, which offers cloud-based application programming interfaces, was valued at about $2 billion in a new funding round led by Tiger Global Management, two people familiar with the matter said.

These people were granted anonymity because they were sharing confidential information. Kong did not respond to a request for comment. Tiger Global declined to comment.

Kong last raised $80 million in Series D funding in 2020, which valued the startup at $1.4 billion. This round was also led by Tiger, according to PitchBook data. Sapphire Ventures, Lombardstreet Ventures, Index Ventures, CRV, Andreessen Horowitz, and Notable Capital also participated in that round. Other past investors include Goldman Sachs. All told, the company has raised $268 million, excluding this latest round of funding.

Founded in 2009 as Mashape in an Italian garage by Augusto "Aghi" Marietti and Marco Palladino, Kong spun out in 2017 and boasted of having over $100 million in annual recurring revenue last year.

APIs are the pipes through which much of the modern internet flows, and Kong counts PayPal, Nasdaq, and Volvo among its customers.

"It's basically become the nervous system of the internet," Marietti told Business Insider last year.

Tiger Global, founded by Chase Coleman, invested at a rapid pace during the tech boom, making 335 investments in 2021, according to Crunchbase. However, as the tech market has soured, the firm has been much quieter. That could be shifting as AI investments continue to ramp up. Last week, Tiger Global also doubled down on OpenAI, investing in the ChatGPT maker's massive $6.6 billion funding round.