In 2006, the most predominant form of digital social communication was still email, and AOL instant messenger. A decade later, things have obviously changed quite rapidly in the face of higher bandwidth, greater capabilities, and the explosion of social media. Software-as-a-Service is an area that is growing exponentially. The digital platformification of older industries, paired with new advances in the Internet of Things (IoT) makes the API space — the powerhouse driving Internet connectivity — ripe for investment.

APIs, or Application Programming Interfaces, are an important cog in this process, and the market surrounding them is thriving. As John Musser of API Science told us, their future ubiquity throughout our digital fabric is inevitable. APIs encourage standardization — have you ever used Twitter to log in to a third party application? They extend functionality so that more potential is at our fingertips — how often do you query a map embedded into a web application? By exposing assets to developers to create new apps with, APIs also inspire innovation, promote data matter experts, lead to creative projects, and subtly increase the end user’s experience.

The API space has produced an economy in it’s own right. APIs can be used to open new monetization streams alongside existing ones, but API-first companies have emerged that are entirely built around an API service. Twillio, Algolia, Contentful.com, and others are examples of companies that are exposing an API as their main product Read More

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