Kong
Kong Inc. provides a unified cloud-native API and AI connectivity platform built on an open-source NGINX engine, serving 1,000+ enterprise customers across financial services, healthcare, aviation, and technology with Kong Konnect's SaaS control plane for API, AI, event, and service-mesh traffic governance.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2017
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount1,001–5,000
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Kong does
Kong Inc. operates a unified cloud-native API and AI connectivity platform built on an ultra-lightweight NGINX engine delivering 50K+ transactions per second per node. Its flagship Kong Konnect serves as a SaaS control plane managing federated runtime infrastructure across five distinct gateway types — Kong API Gateway (open-source API gateway), Kong AI Gateway (LLM, MCP, and agent-to-agent traffic governance), Kong Event Gateway (Kafka event-stream management), Kong Mesh (Kuma-based service mesh), and Kong Ingress Controller — plus the Kong Kubernetes Operator for declarative automation. Supporting modules include the API Service Catalog, Runtime Management, Developer Portal, APIOps & Automation, Usage Metering & Billing (built on the acquired OpenMeter platform), API Observability, the KAi AI co-pilot, the Kong Context Mesh for AI-agent context delivery, and the MCP Registry for governing Model Context Protocol servers.
The company monetizes through a hybrid model: tiered SaaS subscriptions to Kong Konnect (Plus/Enterprise), annual enterprise self-managed licenses, usage-based metering and billing, AI-assisted migration professional services (Kong Ascent), and a freemium open-source distribution funnel anchored by Kong Gateway (43.6K GitHub stars), Insomnia (38.5K), Kuma (CNCF), KIC, OpenMeter, and Volcano SDK — collectively 1.6B+ downloads and 100T+ calls. Go-to-market combines direct enterprise field sales (with "Book Demo" and "Contact Sales" CTAs), a global SI partnership with Persistent Systems, regional channel distribution (Unfold in ANZ), cloud marketplaces (AWS and Azure Dedicated Cloud Gateways), community-led developer adoption across 47 countries, and event-driven demand generation (flagship API + AI Summit, Agentic Era World Tour).
Kong serves 1,000+ enterprise customers across financial services (HSBC, Goldman Sachs, Nasdaq, ING, Rabobank, ANZ, PayPal, Aviva), aviation and automotive (United Airlines, BMW, Mercedes-Benz), healthcare and life sciences (Moderna, Optum, Clearsense, League), retail and travel (Wayfair, SeatGeek, Sky Italia, Brittany Ferries, Australia Post), and technology (Sony Interactive Entertainment, Yahoo! Japan, Verifone), with a 2025 headquarters in Downtown San Francisco, regional hubs in Singapore (IMDA-accredited), Bengaluru, Shanghai, and Sydney, and 501–1,000 employees globally.
Kong firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Kong
- Website
- https://konghq.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2017
- Headcount range
- 1,001–5,000 employees
- Short description
- Kong Inc. provides a unified cloud-native API and AI connectivity platform built on an open-source NGINX engine, serving 1,000+ enterprise customers across financial services, healthcare, aviation, and technology with Kong Konnect's SaaS control plane for API, AI, event, and service-mesh traffic governance.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Where Kong is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices5 records
Markets served
Kong business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D
Revenue model
- Kong Konnect SaaS Subscriptions: Recurring SaaS subscriptions for the unified API & AI platform with tiered editions (Plus, Enterprise). Free tier available; 99.9% uptime SLA on gateway control plane.
- Usage-Based Metering & Billing (OpenMeter): Usage-based revenue capture from APIs, LLMs, MCP, and event streaming resources, enabling entitlement-based and consumption-based monetization for customers (i.e., Kong's customers monetize their APIs through Kong's tooling).
- Kong Professional Services / Ascent Migration: AI-assisted migration services (Kong Ascent) plus Forward Deployed Engineers and API Advisory Services. End-to-end engagements migrating from legacy platforms (MuleSoft, Apigee) to Kong Konnect.
- Kong Enterprise Self-Managed Licensing: Annual enterprise licenses for self-managed Kong Gateway and Kong Mesh with premium plugins (Advanced Auth, RBAC, Audit Logging, Enterprise support 24x7, Customer Success Packages).
- Open-Source Adoption Funnel: Freemium open-source distribution (Kong Gateway 43.6K stars, Insomnia 38.5K stars, Kuma, KIC, OpenMeter, Volcano SDK, 1.6B+ downloads, 100T+ calls) feeding land-and-expand into paid Kong Konnect and Enterprise tiers.
- Strategic Acquisitions / Product Expansion: Acquired OpenMeter in September 2025 to integrate usage-based metering and billing into Kong Konnect (completion early 2026, customer migration mid-2026).
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Monthly | Free self-serve Kong Konnect tier with 'Try Konnect free' |
| Subscription | Annual | Kong Enterprise (self-managed) annual license |
| Hybrid | Annual | Kong Konnect (managed SaaS) |
| Usage-based | Pay-as-you-go | Usage Metering & Billing for APIs and AI (OpenMeter-based) |
| Unit Pricing | Annual | API + AI Summit 2026 in-person Full Experience ticket |
Go-to-market motion5 records
Distribution channels6 records
Kong product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Kong provides a unified API and AI connectivity platform anchored by the Kong Konnect SaaS control plane, which manages federated runtime gateways including API Gateway, AI Gateway, Event Gateway, Service Mesh, and Ingress Controller. The platform enables enterprises to design, secure, govern, observe, and monetize API, LLM, MCP, and agent-to-agent traffic across cloud, on-prem, and Kubernetes environments. Supporting offerings include developer tools (Insomnia API client, Volcano SDK), the KAi AI co-pilot, usage metering and billing (via acquired OpenMeter), and AI-assisted migration services (Kong Ascent).
Product overview
Kong offers a unified platform-plus-modules architecture for API and AI connectivity, anchored by the Kong Konnect SaaS control plane. Federated runtimes managed under Kong Konnect include Kong API Gateway (open-source API gateway), Kong AI Gateway (LLM, MCP, and agent-to-agent traffic governance), Kong Event Gateway (Kafka event streams), Kong Mesh (service mesh), Kong Ingress Controller, and the Kong Kubernetes Operator. Supporting modules include Kong Context Mesh for AI-agent context delivery, the MCP Registry for governing Model Context Protocol servers, API Service Catalog, Runtime Management, APIOps & Automation, Developer Portal, Usage Metering & Billing, API Observability, and the KAi Agent AI co-pilot. Developer tooling includes Kong Insomnia (API client), the Volcano SDK (TypeScript SDK for multi-provider AI agents), and the kongctl AI-native CLI, with Kong Ascent delivering AI-assisted migration services. Kong also maintains the open-source Kuma service mesh (CNCF) and acquired OpenMeter for usage-based metering and billing.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Kong Konnect Kong Konnect is the unified SaaS control plane for federated gateway infrastructure, providing gateway manager, dedicated cloud gateways, mesh manager, advanced analytics, service catalog, API observability, and metering and billing capabilities. Targeted at enterprise platform teams and API/AI engineering teams.
- Kong Gateway (API Gateway) Kong Gateway is the world's most adopted open-source API gateway, built on an ultra-lightweight NGINX engine, delivering high-performance proxying, plugin extensibility, Kubernetes-native configuration via Ingress Controller, and deployment flexibility across cloud, on-prem, and hybrid environments.
- Kong AI Gateway Kong AI Gateway governs LLM, MCP, and agent-to-agent (A2A) traffic on a single gateway, providing advanced LLM policies (PII sanitization, semantic prompt guards), semantic caching and routing, multi-LLM support, AI quota management, and L7 observability for AI traffic. Targeted at AI engineering teams.
- Kong Event Gateway Kong Event Gateway unifies event streaming and API developer experience by managing, securing, governing, and observing Kafka event streams; it enables federated event API infrastructure, monetization of event streams, and reduced Kafka infrastructure footprint via virtualized topics and clusters.
- Kong Mesh Kong Mesh is an enterprise-grade service mesh for Kubernetes, VMs, and bare-metal that delivers zero-trust security, observability, traffic management, and reliability features with declarative configuration; built on the open-source Kuma project.
- Kong Ingress Controller (KIC) Kong Ingress Controller (KIC) is a Kubernetes-native controller that declaratively manages Kong Gateway as Kubernetes resources, providing traffic management, plugin extensibility, role-based security, and integrations with Kubernetes-native tools such as cert-manager.
- Kong Kubernetes Operator (KO) The Kong Kubernetes Operator unifies Kubernetes services and gateway management via vendor-neutral Gateway API resources, offering automatic certificate rotation with cert-manager, latency/CPU-based autoscaling, and integration with the Konnect Service Catalog.
- Kong Insomnia Kong Insomnia is an open-source API client for designing, testing, debugging, mocking, and linting REST, GraphQL, gRPC, SSE, SOAP, and WebSocket APIs; native integration with Kong Konnect (Insomnia 13), AI-powered testing, AI Runner, and custom linting for cloud projects.
- Kong Ascent Kong Ascent is an AI-assisted, human-in-the-loop API migration service delivered through Kong Professional Services, moving enterprises off legacy API platforms (Apigee, MuleSoft) onto Kong Konnect with claims of 50% faster migrations and 60% average cost savings.
- Volcano SDK Volcano is Kong's open-source TypeScript SDK for building multi-Provider AI agents, supporting agentic workflows over multiple LLM providers and MCP tools.
Companies that use Kong
Customer profileNamed customers40 records
Segments9 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Kong technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration18 records
AI capability11 records
Feature9 records
Kong partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Ten partnerships are on record, tiered core, flagship and minor.
- CrowdStrikecoreIntegration with CrowdStrike Falcon AI Detection and Response (AIDR) across AI gateways. As an AI gateway partner, Kong feeds correlated telemetry, real-time threat detection, and policy enforcement into CrowdStrike's Falcon Next-Gen SIEM to address prompt injection, data leakage, and adversary manipulation. CrowdStrike positions Falcon as the AI security control plane across the AI stack.
- Google CloudcoreGoogle Cloud is one of CrowdStrike Falcon AIDR's AI gateway partners integrated with Kong. Kong positioned its participation at Google Cloud Next as an opportunity to deepen relationships with enterprise buyers and cloud partners, and to position itself as a unified governance layer for AI-driven systems.
- Persistent SystemsflagshipPersistent serves as Kong's global systems integration partner, combining Persistent's engineering-led delivery and GenAI Hub with Kong's unified API and AI connectivity platform. Targets enterprises moving AI from experimentation to production across hybrid and multi-cloud environments, modernizing legacy API estates and reducing operational costs while operationalizing GenAI and agentic workflows with built-in security and policy-driven controls.
- UnfoldcoreAustralian channel activation and software distribution business Unfold partners with Kong to build and scale Kong's partner ecosystem across Australia and New Zealand. Unfold provides Kong's channel partners with targeted sales plays, technical positioning guidance, and use-case support to help convert AI and API opportunities into pipeline and revenue, accelerating new partner onboarding in the ANZ market.
- Amazon Web Services (AWS)flagshipAWS hosts Kong's Dedicated Cloud Gateways and regional Kong Konnect control plane in Singapore, enabling single-tenant deployment and data residency for enterprise customers. AWS also won Kong's 2025 Partner Award. Kong Konnect Service Catalog now supports AWS Auto Discovery for third-party gateway federation.
- Microsoft AzureflagshipMicrosoft Azure hosts Kong's Dedicated Cloud Gateways and regional Kong Konnect control plane in Singapore alongside AWS. Azure is a key cloud-infrastructure partner and was a 2025 Gartner-recognized Gartner Peer Insights honoree alongside Kong's MQ placement.
- SolacecoreSolace has joined Kong's Premium Technology Partner Program. The integration combines Kong's API management, security, and AI gateway capabilities with Solace's real-time data movement and event governance technology to deliver a unified, governed, and observable data fabric for the agentic AI era. Both companies manage and govern APIs, events, LLMs, and MCP servers through a single control plane with consistent lifecycles, policies, authentication, and access controls.
- LimePointminorLimePoint (managed service provider and Confluent partner) also partners with Kong for API capabilities, expanding into the utilities sector to deliver data streaming, API development, and AI solutions.
- CognizantminorCognizant was recognized as a 2025 Kong Partner Award winner for innovative contributions to API and AI solutions.
- TCS (Tata Consultancy Services)minorTCS was recognized as a 2025 Kong Partner Award winner at the Partner Summit in New York City.
Scale indicators21 records
Recent moves9 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Kong competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- MuleSoft (Salesforce): Salesforce-owned API management and integration platform; the dominant enterprise incumbent that Kong explicitly targets with Kong Ascent migration services. Comparable in target buyer (enterprise platform teams) and core offering (API gateway, integration, developer portal).
- Apigee (Google Cloud): Google Cloud's full-lifecycle API management platform; a Gartner-recognized leader and direct Kong competitor in enterprise API governance. Kong Ascent explicitly lists Apigee as a legacy migration source.
- Tyk Technologies: Open-source API gateway vendor with self-managed and managed offerings; competes with Kong Gateway head-to-head on price-transparent, developer-led GTM and shares a similar open-source-to-enterprise funnel.
- Gravitee: Open-source API management platform with event-native API gateway capabilities; competes directly with Kong Gateway and Kong Event Gateway in mid-market and enterprise accounts seeking OSS-first API management.
- Solo.io (Istio / Gloo): Service mesh and API gateway vendor built on Istio/Envoy; competes directly with Kong Mesh and Kong Gateway for Kubernetes-native API and microservices connectivity, particularly in platform-engineering-led deployments.
Broad incumbents
- AWS API Gateway: Native AWS API gateway service bundled with cloud spend; competes primarily on convenience and cost-of-switching rather than feature depth. Kong explicitly federates AWS API Gateway via its Service Catalog, signaling it as a coexisting but commoditizing competitor.
- Microsoft Azure API Management: Microsoft's first-party API management service bundled with Azure enterprise agreements. Directly competes for the same enterprise platform team budget and is one of Kong's two flagship cloud-infrastructure partners (alongside AWS).
Emerging players
- Portkey: AI gateway and LLM observability platform; competes with Kong AI Gateway for developer mindshare in LLM routing, semantic caching, and AI governance. Referenced as a comparison alternative alongside Kong in pricing analyses.
- LiteLLM: Open-source LLM gateway and proxy used to route, govern, and observe multi-provider LLM traffic; an emerging competitor to Kong AI Gateway that appears alongside Kong on the CrowdStrike Falcon AIDR partner page.
- Zuplo: Developer-led API gateway with transparent, usage-based pricing; competes with Kong Konnect in the developer- and PLG-driven segment, particularly where Kong's quote-based pricing creates friction.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat7 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Kong social profiles
Digital presenceKong financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Kong leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles11 records
Kong funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds7 records
Investors18 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Kong M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A3 records
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Kong
What does Kong do?
Kong provides a unified API and AI connectivity platform anchored by the Kong Konnect SaaS control plane, which manages federated runtime gateways including API Gateway, AI Gateway, Event Gateway, Service Mesh, and Ingress Controller. The platform enables enterprises to design, secure, govern, observe, and monetize API, LLM, MCP, and agent-to-agent traffic across cloud, on-prem, and Kubernetes environments. Supporting offerings include developer tools (Insomnia API client, Volcano SDK), the KAi AI co-pilot, usage metering and billing (via acquired OpenMeter), and AI-assisted migration services (Kong Ascent).
When was Kong founded?
Kong was founded in 2017. It employs 1,001 to 5,000 people.
Where is Kong based?
Kong is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
How does Kong make money?
Six revenue lines are on record. Kong Konnect SaaS Subscriptions are the primary driver. The others are usage-Based Metering & Billing (OpenMeter), kong Professional Services / Ascent Migration, kong Enterprise Self-Managed Licensing, open-Source Adoption Funnel and strategic Acquisitions / Product Expansion.
Who are Kong's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are MuleSoft (Salesforce), Apigee (Google Cloud), Tyk Technologies, Gravitee and Solo.io (Istio / Gloo). Broad incumbents are AWS API Gateway and Microsoft Azure API Management. Emerging players are Portkey, LiteLLM and Zuplo.
Does Kong have an API?
Yes. Kong offers a public Admin API for Kong Gateway configuration and management, a declarative decK CLI tool, a Terraform provider, and the Kong Kubernetes Operator for automated API and AI traffic management. The Konnect Developer Portal exposes APIs as MCP servers so AI agents and tools like Cursor can consume them; the Konnect MCP server lets agents start helping on the agentic API platform journey. kongctl 1.0 is a declarative, AI-Native CLI for Kong Konnect, and the Volcano SDK is a TypeScript SDK for building multi-Provider AI agents. Usage Metering & Billing provides metering and billing APIs (OpenMeter) for AI and API monetization. Developer documentation is at developer.konghq.com.