# Augusto Marietti

> Augusto 'Aghi' Marietti is the CEO and co-founder of Kong Inc., the company behind the world's most widely deployed API gateway. Born in Rome in 1988, he co-founded Mashape at age 19 in a Milan garage, arrived in San Francisco with $600 and a 90-day visa, crashed on Travis Kalanick's couch, and built what became Kong - a $2 billion enterprise processing over 20 trillion API requests monthly. Known as the 'API Godfather,' Marietti has raised $424 million in total funding, surpassed $146M in annual recurring revenue with 800+ employees, and is now positioning Kong as the essential AI connectivity layer for the enterprise.

- **Role:** CEO and Co-Founder at Kong Inc.
- **Organizations:** Kong Inc., Mashape
- **From:** Rome, Italy
- **Nationality:** Italian
- **Education:** Bachelor of Science in Economics, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Catholic University of Milan), International Economics (brief study), UC Berkeley
- **Known for:** Built Kong into the world's most deployed API gateway with 270 million+ downloads, Kong processes over 20 trillion API requests monthly across 7 million global instances, Raised $424M in total funding, including a $175M Series E at $2B valuation (2024)

## Career timeline

- **2006** — At age 18, invented a cloud storage service similar to Dropbox before Dropbox existed; unable to secure funding in Italy
- **2006-2009** — Founded MemboxX, an early European cloud document storage service
- **2009** — Co-founded Mashape at age 19 with Marco Palladino and Michele Zonca in a Milan garage
- **2009** — Pitched at TechCrunch50 in San Francisco; crashed on Travis Kalanick's couch, cooking carbonara weekly in exchange for lodging
- **2010** — Permanently relocated to San Francisco with co-founders; arrived with only $600 on a tourist visa with a 90-day runway
- **2010** — Negotiated $100,000 convertible note with early YouTube employees at Travis Kalanick's kitchen table
- **2011-2016** — Grew Mashape into the world's largest API marketplace
- **2017** — Raised $18M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz; sold Mashape marketplace to RapidAPI
- **2017** — Co-founded Kong Inc. with Marco Palladino, spinning off the API gateway technology from Mashape
- **2020** — Raised $100M Series D led by Tiger Global
- **2021** — Recognized by Goldman Sachs as one of 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs; invested in Hugging Face Series B
- **2023** — Kong surpassed $100M Annual Recurring Revenue
- **2024** — Kong reached $146.1M ARR with 800+ employees
- **2024** — Honored by Goldman Sachs as one of the Most Exceptional Entrepreneurs of 2024
- **2024** — Closed $175M Series E at $2B valuation in November, led by Tiger Global and Balderton Capital

## Achievements

- Built Kong into the world's most deployed API gateway with 270 million+ downloads
- Kong processes over 20 trillion API requests monthly across 7 million global instances
- Raised $424M in total funding, including a $175M Series E at $2B valuation (2024)
- Surpassed $100M ARR in 2023; reached $146M ARR in 2024
- Lead inventor on 5 U.S. patents in API management and cloud infrastructure
- Angel investor in 20+ startups including Hugging Face
- Goldman Sachs Most Exceptional Entrepreneurs 2024
- Goldman Sachs 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs 2021
- Kong Insomnia surpassed 1 million users, fastest-growing API development platform
- 700+ enterprise customers including GSK, PayPal, and NYSE

## Latest updates

- **2024-11** — Kong closed $175M Series E funding at $2B valuation, led by Tiger Global and Balderton Capital
- **2024-10** — Honored by Goldman Sachs as one of the Most Exceptional Entrepreneurs of 2024
- **2024-09** — Kong launched AI Gateway 3.8 with Semantic Caching, speeding up AI responses by up to 20x
- **2025-09** — Kong acquired OpenMeter for API and AI monetization capabilities
- **2025-11** — Kong released Insomnia 12 with native MCP clients and AI-powered development features

## Links

- Website: https://konghq.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonicaghi
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/sonicaghi
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Mashape

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/augusto-marietti
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-27