---
layout: post
title: API Marketplace Mashape Raises $1.5M Seed Round
image: >-
  http://kinlane-productions2.s3.amazonaws.com/api-evangelist-site/blog/mashape-logo.png
author:
  name: kinlane
tags:
  - Marketplace
  - ai
---
[Mashape](http://www.mashape.com/), the upcoming, self-service marketplace for APIs, which provides a platform to distribute, consume and manage cloud based APIs, has just [closed $1.5M in seed funding](http://blog.mashape.com/mashape-raises-15m-from-nea-index-crv-jeff-be "closed 1.5 million in seed funding").  
  
The round was led by [NEA](http://www.crunchbase.com/financial-organization/new-enterprise-associates "NEA"), with [Index Ventures](http://www.crunchbase.com/financial-organization/index-ventures "Index Ventures"), [Charles River Ventures](http://www.crunchbase.com/financial-organization/charles-river-ventures "Charles River Ventures") and [Ignition](http://www.crunchbase.com/financial-organization/ignition-partners "Ignition Partners") [Partners](http://www.crunchbase.com/financial-organization/ignition-partners "Ignition Partners") participating, and on the angel side of things, [Jeff Bezos](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Bezos "Jeff Bezos") and Eric Schmidt’s [Innovation Endeavors](http://www.crunchbase.com/financial-organization/innovation-endeavors "Innovative Endeavors"), as well as [Erik Rannala](http://www.crunchbase.com/person/erik-rannala "Erik Rannaia"), [Russell Siegelman](http://www.crunchbase.com/person/russell-siegelman "Russ Siegelman") and [Rick Webb](http://www.crunchbase.com/person/rick-webb "Rick Web") jumped in.  
  
Mashape is one of the most recent additions to the API management space, providing an end to end solution allowing you to deploy, manage and market your API from within the Mashape platform.    Mashape provides API management tools that can be found with other providers like Mashery, Apigee and 3Scale, but where they stand out is they also provide you with a library to deploy your API, auto-generate the code developers will need to integrate with your API, and a social API marketplace to generate attention and drive adoption around your API.  
  
![](http://kinlane-productions2.s3.amazonaws.com/api-service-providers/mashape/Mashape-Tag-Cloud.png)“ We have a very long term vision, we believe APIs will play a major role in the  
world of Information Technology for the years to come - the interesting part  
is that even companies not related to Internet as a core business, are now  
integrating APIs into their products, such Toyota or Nike.” [Mashape’s CEO](http://twitter.com/#!/sinzone "Mashape's CEO Augusto Marietti")[  
](http://twitter.com/#!/sinzone "Mashape's CEO Augusto Marietti")[Augusto Marietti](http://twitter.com/#!/sinzone "Mashape's CEO Augusto Marietti") says.“ If we take a look into those startups that have more than 30 people, we notice that most of them are hiring 2 new positions: API evangelist and API engineer. Those  
positions would never have existed 3 years ago. A new market is coming.”  
  
[Mashape](http://apievangelist.com/serviceproviders/mashape.php "Mashape") steps into a space that is already dominated by heavy-weights like [Layer7](/2011/06/17/layer-7-technologies-launches-new-api-portal/ "Layer7") and [SOA Software](http://www.soa.com/ "SOA Software"), and has new players like [Apigee](http://apievangelist.com/serviceproviders/apigee.php "Apigee"), [Mashery](http://apievangelist.com/serviceproviders/mashery.php "Mashery") and [3Scale](http://apievangelist.com/serviceproviders/3scale.php "3Scale") offering business and enterprise API solutions.  But Mashape brings a fresher, more social offering, that will appeal to the API hacker in all of us, and with a little more money in their pocket, maybe they can give the other players some serious competition in this [new API economy.](/2011/01/19/the-new-api-economy/)