API Startups

Scraper API is a web scraping SaaS founded in 2018 by Dan Ni that helps developers extract data from websites at scale while handling obstacles like CAPTCHAs and bot detection. Acquired by SaaS.Group in August 2020, the platform has grown to $400k/month through content marketing, blog posts, and developer sponsorships. The team is now focused on SEO improvements and scaling toward enterprise-grade solutions.

Rank Science is a CDN-based SaaS platform that automates SEO through continuous A/B testing of on-page HTML changes. Founded by Ryan Bednor (a software engineer-turned-SEO consultant) and co-founder Dylan Forest, the company grew from $28K MRR at Y Combinator entry to $80K MRR in just three months through content marketing (case studies on Hacker News), press coverage (TechCrunch), and leveraging Ryan's existing network of SEO-focused companies.

iMoji is a sticker platform that enables users to create and share custom emojis across messaging apps. Founded by Daniel Gruselowski and Jason Stein with four other co-founders, the company raised $2M in seed funding and grew to over 1 billion impressions per month by December 2015. They monetize through partnerships with messaging apps and plan native advertising as their primary revenue model.

Vector Media Group is a bootstrapped web development and digital marketing agency founded by Matt Weinberg in high school around 2000, initially as a computer repair service before pivoting to web design and online marketing. Now 32 employees strong and generating $6 million in annual revenue, the company serves enterprise clients including Google, the Associated Press, and Columbia University, offering web development, design, branding, and ad spend management services. The agency has been on the Inc. 5,000 list for three consecutive years and has been profitable every month since inception without taking outside funding.

Map My Fitness (Map My Ride, Map My Run, Map My Walk, Map My Hike) was founded in 2006 by Robin Thurston after a cycling trip in Switzerland. The company grew to 20 million monthly active users by 2013 through purely organic, word-of-mouth growth with no paid customer acquisition. At exit, the company had $17 million in trailing 12-month revenue across multiple business lines (advertising, subscriptions, and SaaS API licensing) and was acquired by Under Armour for approximately $150 million.

Nexosis is an AI/ML API platform founded in 2015 that helps developers and enterprises build accurate forecasting and impact analysis applications without deep data science knowledge. The company monetizes through a freemium developer model (charging $0.10 per 1,000 predictions) and enterprise consumption-based plans averaging $10,000/month, currently serving 100+ enterprise customers with over 1 million predictions per month and doubling month-over-month growth.

Velocity is a marketing intelligence SaaS platform founded in 2010 by David Dunne that helps agencies, brands, and analysts make data-driven marketing decisions. The company has raised $15 million to date, serves under 500 customers with an average ARPU of $6,000, and maintains over 90% annual retention. They're now pivoting toward AI-powered insights to accelerate how analysts derive actionable intelligence from their data.

UAPI is a mobile app discovery platform that connects app advertisers (like King/Candy Crush, Uber, Lyft) with high-quality users through 4,500 publisher partners including Cheetah Mobile and Pandora. Founded in late 2011 by Moshe Vaknin, the company grew from $250K in revenue (first year) to $80M net revenue by 2016 by processing over $320M in total ad volume and taking a 30% commission while returning 70% to publishers. The company is profitable, has raised $20M in capital, employs 130 people across 10 global offices, and is positioned for potential IPO.

Likefolio is a fintech SaaS company founded by serial entrepreneur Andy Swan that analyzes tweets to identify shifts in consumer behavior and purchase intent for professional investors. The company operates two revenue models: a $2,000/month subscription service (Likefolio On Demand) for smaller hedge funds and boutique investors, and a robust API priced $100,000-$300,000 annually for quantitative funds, with the API model currently generating the majority of revenue. Andy has bootstrapped the company with a lean team of 9 (5 in Kentucky, 4 in Argentina) and deliberately avoided raising capital to maintain full ownership and strategic control.

Foursquare transformed from a hot consumer social network (valued at $650M in 2013) into an enterprise location intelligence powerhouse under CEO Jeff Glick's leadership starting in 2016. The company monetized its 70,000 free developer community through a tiered SaaS licensing model based on API calls, with over 90% of revenue now coming from B2B customers including Fortune 500 companies, tech giants like Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, and ride-sharing platforms like Uber. Their Pilgrim technology, built on nearly 12 billion cumulative check-ins (7 million per day), enables contextual mobile marketing and real-time foot traffic analysis that has made Foursquare an essential infrastructure layer in apps across the globe.

Picatiki is an event ticketing SaaS founded in 2008 by Jayesh Parmar with a freemium model targeting nonprofits and community organizers with a free product, while monetizing through commission-based Pro and enterprise API offerings. The company raised $1.5M total and achieved $1.2M in revenue (4% of $30M gross ticket revenue) in 2016, with plans to break $60M in gross ticket revenue in 2017 through 100% YoY growth driven by newly hired VPs of Growth and Sales focusing on enterprise API customers.

Thunkable is a Y Combinator-backed no-code mobile app builder founded by MIT/Google engineer Arun Saigel in early 2016. The platform enables non-technical users to build mobile apps without coding, competing in a crowded space with a focus on underserved SMBs and individuals. Having raised $3.3M and built a team of 10 in San Francisco with millions of platform users, the company was preparing to monetize through a paywall charging users for premium features like analytics, in-app purchases, and app store deployment.

Green Deck is a SaaS platform that helps online retailers and fashion brands implement dynamic pricing through real-time pricing recommendations and AI-driven insights. Founded in June 2017 by Ayush Jain and three co-founders after exiting a health tech startup, the company raised $120,000 from Tech Stars and SAP through the Berlin accelerator program. With 4 paying customers contributing ~$10,000/month in revenue, they focus on helping fashion retailers and e-commerce companies stay competitive by providing daily pricing recommendations while maintaining human control over final pricing decisions.

Predict Leads is a B2B SaaS company providing competitive intelligence and business data via API to VCs, corporate VCs, and sales enablement platforms. Founded in 2015 by Rox Seever and co-founders in Slovenia, the company crawls billions of data points to extract signals about new partnerships, client acquisitions, and hiring intent. Growing from ~$40-50K ARR in 2017 to ~$325K ARR in 2018 (at the time of interview), the company has 30 customers paying an average of $12K annually, bootstrapped with only $15K from an accelerator.

Leadboxer is a customer data platform founded in 2014 by Ward Frans and team that combines customer data from multiple sources (email, web behavior, social, etc.) into unified profiles and customer journeys. Operating cash flow positive with ~$25k-30k MRR across 100-150 customers at $3,400-5,000 ACV, the team of 15 is targeting $1M ARR in 2019 with a healthy unit economics (2% monthly churn, $300 CAC on $5,600 LTV).

Segmate is a Facebook Messenger chatbot marketing platform launched in October 2017 by Carl Schuchert. The company generated $250,000 in top-line revenue from an affiliate launch within the first year, netting approximately $130,000 after affiliate commissions to fund development. Currently operating with 637 total users (79 monthly paying customers at an average of $9/month), generating roughly $1,000 MRR, the team is exploring niche-specific marketing campaigns and higher-ticket offers to scale the core SaaS subscription model.

MetaVisor is a health information platform founded in 2012 (launched 2013) that personalizes medical research and clinical trial information for patients based on their specific condition and treatment stage. The company operates on a dual revenue model: licensing technology to healthcare organizations and partners (like the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society), and being paid by biopharma companies to identify and engage patients for clinical trials. With 130,000 subscribers across 129 countries and a team of 7 full-time staff plus ~35 part-time contributors, MetaVisor is on track for profitability within 12 months of their upcoming $1-5M fundraise.

Trend.io is a marketplace connecting consumer brands with micro influencers to generate user-generated content for paid advertising. The platform handles legal licensing and distribution rights, eliminating friction from direct influencer negotiations. With ~200 brands on the platform and $60k MRR, Ramon built the company with a lean team of contractors while focusing on product-led growth through content marketing.

Ringpin, founded in 2016 by John Stern and Brian Levine, is a SaaS platform that enables physical businesses and locations to drive digital campaigns and experiences through QR codes and physical touchpoints. Originally built as an omni-channel contact center, the company pivoted during the pandemic to focus on bridging physical and digital worlds, currently serving 45 customers with under $5,000 MRR but pursuing enterprise partnerships through API integrations like Postal.io.

GAIF is a micro private equity fund built by AI researcher Simon Gillett that invests in Amazon sellers. The fund operates ATEM, a free proprietary demand forecasting and analytics tool for Amazon merchants that uses the same technology as Amazon.com, serving as a warm lead generation engine. With $20M+ in capital raised, the fund has deployed capital into at least one acquisition (Territory, an industrial supplies brand) and tracks hundreds of thousands of SKUs worth nine figures in GMV annually.