Mashery raises $5.5 million

SF-based startup rakes in Series C round led by Cisco

Mashery, a provider of API enablement and management services, has raised $5.5 million in Series C funding.  Cisco led the round and was joined by existing investors including, Formative Ventures, First Round Capital and 406 Ventures.  

The startup has built a business helping other businesses develop API infrastructures.  In this day and age, if a technology company doesn't have an API, they are behind the times.  According to Gartner, by 2014, 50 percent of Global 1000 companies will offer access to portions of enterprise data and business process to customers and collaborators.  

By developing API infrastructure, businesses can much more easily port their information to other platforms like applications for mobile phones, social media sites, Web-enabled devices, gaming consoles or affiliate Websites.  It's quickly becoming the standard way to share data.

So far, the SF-based startup has worked with some pretty big companies including Best Buy, Neflix, Reuters and the New York Times.  

“APIs have the potential to transform the way organizations do business online in much the same way Web sites once transformed how people receive, consume and interact with information," said Josh Kobelman of First Round Capital.  

With today's announcement, Mashery has received a total of $13.7 million in financing.  The company said it will use this round to expand its product offering, sales, and marketing operations to meet the growing demand for APIs.