KONG, the Belgium based Software-as-a-Service startup, just announced that it closed a $100 million round of funding at a $1.4 billion valuation. The round was led by Tiger Global and included existing KONG investors EQT Ventures, Atomico, and Endeit Capital.
This new capital will help KONG expand its customer base, grow its development capabilities, and fuel its ambitious global expansion plans.
What is KONG?
KONG is a global cloud-based computer gaming platform providing users with gaming technology, services, and products. In addition, the company offers its customers an open SDK – the KONG SDK – for building “connected games” i.e. modern online games that incorporate various social networking platforms.
KONG’s innovative technology enables the development of feature-rich and highly engaging cross-platform games for tablet, PC, and mobile devices. In addition, users can customise their own in-game virtual currency options which helps increase game downloads and attract merchandise sales. This provides developers an edge over competitors in the ever-growing global market for interactive content.
To scale up its operations, KONG recently closed a significant round of funding from prominent media partners including Amazon Web Services (AWS), SoftBank Group, Tencent Games, Aspect Ventures, Vayner Capital Ventures, 2020 Venturi Capital Partners (VCAP). They joined earlier investors such as Google Ventures and Sequoia Capital to raise a total of $65 million in this new round of funding which will be used to further expand the company’s presence across multiple platforms and provide a more advanced user experience. The funding will also help KONG capitalise on emerging markets to become one of the world’s most popular platform providers in the interactive gaming industry.
Who led the round?
Kong Inc., the creator of the most widely adopted open source microservice API gateway, today announced it has raised $43 million in its latest round of funding. Led by Index Ventures, this brings Kong’s total venture investments to $107M.
The company has customers in more than 60 countries and is experiencing breakneck growth at more than 150 percent year-over-year. This investment follows a highly successful Series A and B rounds that attracted investors such as Index Ventures, GGV, and Andreessen Horowitz. Previous investors also joined this round including Ilya Sukhar, co-founder of Parse; Mark Leslie, successful Silicon Valley investor; and Joe Du Bey and Mike Opsahl from Redpoint Ventures.
Details of the Funding Round
Kong Inc, a leading API platform for digital products and services, recently announced that it had secured $100 million in funding at a valuation of $1.4 billion, led by Tiger Global. This marks the company’s sixth funding round, bringing its total funding to $400 million.
This new investment will help the company accelerate its growth and innovation, and further extend its market-leading API platform.
Let’s delve into the details of the funding round.
Total amount raised
KONG Inc. recently completed their latest round of funding raising $25 million. This largest raise to date puts the company’s valuation at over $1 billion, signalling its status as a megawatt business and fueling its impressive growth trajectory. The Series B funding was led by Wellington Partners, with participating investors including Google Ventures, Gener8tor and other notable venture capital firms.
This round of funding will help KONG achieve several strategic objectives, including expanding its customer base, investing in new products and services and increasing capacity for existing data centres. With the additional capital, the company looks to move into new markets and allow for more rapid innovation to stay ahead of industry trends.
With this investment, KONG further validates its commitment to being “the leading provider of cloud-based infrastructure solutions for digital agencies” according to their CEO Scott Klepach. He says, “This funding is fueling our next stage of strategic global expansion as we look ahead into the future — setting us up for significant long-term growth”.
Valuation
The valuation of KONG’s latest funding round was approximately £150 million. This figure reflects the general health and prospects of the startup as evaluated by investors and other market participants. The amount also serves as an indication of how KONG is progressing in comparison to its competitors.
Regarding shareholders, the majority (80%) of shares remain in the hands of existing investors; this condition had been pre-agreed when seeking investment. In addition, 5% of shares were allotted for early stage employees of KONG and 15% for new investors participating in the round.
The Series C round was led by a venture capital firm alongside numerous other angels and high-net worth individuals from across the globe. The funds raised will be primarily used to develop further product lines, expand distribution channels, and increase marketing efforts. This round comes shortly after KONG announced their move into the HealthTech space, with an ambitious program designed to accelerate digital effectiveness in healthcare systems worldwide.
Investors
Kong, Inc. recently announced its latest round of funding. The company secured $43 million from leading venture capital and technology investors.
Wing VC, Root Ventures, and Compass Venture Capital led the round. Other investors included Emerging Technology Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank, XL Innovate, 50 Partners Fund I LP, Boom Capital Partners LLC and Maestro Ventures. This new round of funding values Kong at $1 billion and marks an important milestone for the company as it continues to expand its product offering and empower builders across industries to build better applications faster.
The new funding will support strategic initiatives such as broadening Kong’s API product offerings, investing in customer success programs, driving developer adoption and accelerating international expansion efforts in Europe and Asia Pacific regions. Through this new investment, Kong will forge stronger partnerships with enterprises building cutting-edge digital products powered by the cloud.
In a statement released by the CEO of Kong Inc., Augusto Marietti said “We are grateful for our customers’ belief in what we’re striving to achieve: helping build a world free of fragmentation when it comes to developing modern applications on every platform.” He further added that this new funding round is set to open up multiple opportunities for exclusive product launches at strategic rivals across global markets.
KONG SECURES $100M AT A $1.4B VALUATION LED BY TIGER GLOBAL
KONG Inc. recently announced that they have secured $100M at a $1.4B valuation led by Tiger Global. This round of funding marks a huge milestone for KONG Inc., having grown their valuation by over 40% since their previous round. In addition, it is a testament to KONG’s strong business model and clear path to profitability.
Let’s dive into how this funding will impact KONG Inc. moving forward.
How will KONG use the funds?
KONG, the industry-leading API platform for developing and delivering microservices, recently announced its latest round of funding totaling $25 million. With this influx of capital, the tech giant has revealed its plans to focus on accelerating the development and delivery of their cloud-native offerings.
KONG has indicated that their new funds will bolster their engineering capabilities, expand operations globally, and strengthen core products. KONG’s engineering team is set to use the new funds to continue creating robust software solutions allowing businesses across various sectors to deliver world class digital experiences.
The company will also channel funds into growing their global presence in established markets such as Europe, Asia Pacific, and South America as well as emerging ones in Africa and the Middle East. This expansion will involve expanding their customer support teams geographically; expanding their partner programs to reach more developers; adding educational materials designed to help customers access KONG’s feature-rich serverless platform; as well as introducing other new services over time such as network optimization tools to give users an edge when scaling or troubleshooting issues with heavy traffic.
Finally, KONG plans on using funds from this latest round of investment to strengthen core features such as Zones Performance Management Solution and Professional Services which allow KONG clients to receive post-purchase expertise from certified professionals specialised in areas such as Application Performance Monitoring & Distributed Tracing, Devops Automation, Cloud Migration Services, Network Optimization Tools & Microservices Security. This development should help Dynatrace take servicing clients up another level, especially for customers with complex application architectures that require additional integration help or who strongly rely on microservices to deliver exceptional customer experiences.
What will the impact be on the company?
KONG Inc. recently closed a successful round of funding, bringing in more capital to develop its business. This new funding will enable KONG to grow and become even more competitive.
This newly secured funding will allow the company to accelerate their plans for product innovation, expand their sales channels, and strengthen their current budget position. While the primary benefit of this newfound capital is additional growth opportunities, it also has other advantages that should not be overlooked.
The additional financial support will allow KONG to take greater risks as they attempt new strategies and hire key personnel to further develop their technology-based services. It also allows them to tap into new markets which could be financially and strategically beneficial in the long run. This influx of capital could improve customer experience with better security measures, streamlined processes, and improved customer service. Additionally, this potential increase in industry competition could result in lower customer prices (thus benefiting everyone) and increased job opportunities for those looking for employment within the company or industry.
Overall, KONG’s latest round of funding is likely to positively impact both the company and its customers by providing them with much-needed capital to fuel future growth initiatives and increased competition that may lead to lower prices and more job opportunities down the line.
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