Started by Abhinav Asthana, Ankit Sobti, Abhijit Kane in Bengaluru, Postman is the newest addition to India’s unicorn club. The software startup raised $150 million in a Series C round led by US-based Insight Partners at a $2 billion valuation. It is headquartered in San Francisco.
It took 6 years for the startup to reach a billion-dollar billing which is also the fastest for any Indian SaaS company. Previously, Freshworks had taken 8 years, Icertis took 10 years and Druva took 11 years to be valued at over a billion dollars.
Postman’s target market is software engineers that create, test, and modify APIs (application programme interface). It helps test APIs without writing additional code for testing. Since most modern software systems are heavily API dependent, this service is very relevant. We are in a cloud-driven era, where the number of companies that save and access data on the cloud increase every day.
A majority of the services we use today such as online payments, communication and collaborations are all done using APIs. For example, when you check the weather on your phone, via a search engine or a weather app, APIs bring that information to you. Google or the app does not own the weather data, so they use APIs to source it.
An API is a piece of code that helps two different applications communicate with each other. It takes the inquiry from one application to another and then comes back to the first with a response. With the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, simplifying the manner of communication between applications regardless of the programming language that has been used, is a time saver and therefore a booming business.
Postman has promoted an API- first approach to help in creating effective APIs despite it being the last resort of programmers earlier. The world has adopted the norm of social distancing and this means digital services will help us move forward. At such a time, companies like Postman, help create a strong backend for digital services.
India and US-based Nexus Venture Partners, one of India’s first homegrown VC funds, was the first investor in Postman in 2014. The company raised a $50 million Series B last year, led by Silicon Valley-based Charles River Ventures, where Nexus participated as well.
