Merge
Merge provides a unified API platform exposing 220+ customer-facing integrations plus MCP-based AI agent governance (Agent Handler) and an LLM routing control plane (Gateway) for B2B SaaS, AI, FinTech, and enterprise IT buyers building and governing production AI without owning the underlying integration stack.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2020
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount101–250
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Merge does
Merge (legal entity Merge API Inc.) is a private, venture-backed company founded in 2020 and headquartered in San Francisco with a secondary office in New York City. The company operates a unified API platform that exposes 220+ customer-facing integrations across HR/payroll, accounting, ATS, CRM, file storage, ticketing, chat, knowledge base, and marketing automation behind a single normalized data model, eliminating the engineering burden of building and maintaining dozens of point integrations. As of October 2022, Merge served more than 3,000 customers spanning startups through Fortune 500 enterprises, with named customers including OpenAI, Mistral AI, Ramp, BILL, Perplexity, Dropbox, Drata, Navan, Revolut, Brex, Deel, Remote, and Freshworks.
The core product, Merge Unified, provides a REST API plus SDKs and an embedded Merge Link front-end component, with Integration Observability tooling (sync status, searchable logs, webhooks, automated issue detection) that customers such as Drata credit with an ~80% reduction in time spent managing integrations. On top of this integration backbone, Merge has layered two AI-era products: Merge Agent Handler, an MCP-compatible governance layer that enforces scoped permissions, DLP, and audit logging for AI agents acting on enterprise systems (offered in Agent Handler for Products and Agent Handler for Employees variants), and Merge Gateway, an LLM control plane that fronts multiple model providers with intelligent routing, spend caps, failover, and prompt-injection protection. The platform is supported by enterprise-grade compliance (SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, HIPAA, GDPR, CCPA) and multi-region AWS data residency in the US, EU, and APAC.
Merge employs a hybrid go-to-market: a product-led growth motion with self-serve sign-up and a free startup tier, an enterprise field-sales motion with book-a-demo CTAs and dedicated account managers (including on-site customer enablement, as cited by BILL), an inside-sales motion targeting private equity portfolio companies with a structured AI-cost-optimization playbook, and a Service Partner channel exemplified by Azilen Technologies. Revenue is generated through annual SaaS subscriptions for Unified API and Agent Handler (seat-based for Agent Handler for Employees, quote-based for enterprise tiers), usage-based LLM pass-through via Gateway with BYOK billed at $0.05 per million tokens, a freemium startup tier, and enterprise implementation services. The company has raised $75M cumulatively across a $4.5M seed (May 2021, NEA), a $15M Series A (November 2021, Addition), and a $55M Series B (October 2022, Accel), and reported a 26x year-over-year ARR increase ahead of the Series B.
Merge firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Merge
- Legal name
- Merge API Inc.
- Website
- https://merge.dev
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2020
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 101–250 employees
- Short description
- Merge provides a unified API platform exposing 220+ customer-facing integrations plus MCP-based AI agent governance (Agent Handler) and an LLM routing control plane (Gateway) for B2B SaaS, AI, FinTech, and enterprise IT buyers building and governing production AI without owning the underlying integration stack.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Merge industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Unified API Integration Platform
- NAICS
- Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151), Custom Computer Programming Services (541511)
- SIC
- Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370), Services-Computer Programming Services (7371)
- akta.pro primary industry
- B2B SaaS & Enterprise Personalization (CRM, Sales, Support) (HDAAAGAJ)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- B2B/EDI & Partner Integration (BPAMAOAJ), AI Integration & Orchestration Platforms (Connectors, Workflow, iPaaS for AI) (HDAEANAI), Connector/Adapter Frameworks & Integration Runtimes (HDAEACAJ), Integration, API & Middleware Consulting (BPAHAEAJ)
Keywords
Where Merge is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices3 records
Markets served
Merge business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Operations
Revenue model
- Subscription for Unified API and Agent Handler: Recurring SaaS subscriptions for the Merge Unified API product and the Agent Handler product (including per-seat Agent Handler for Employees and per-product Agent Handler for Products), billed annually with tiered plans by usage and features.
- Usage-based LLM pass-through via Merge Gateway: Customers pay provider LLM usage rates passed through Merge's Gateway, plus a small Merge margin that shrinks at scale; BYOK usage is billed at $0.05 per million tokens; promotional zero-fee periods available for new sign-ups.
- Freemium / free tier for startups: Free tier offered to startups on the Unified API to drive land-and-expand adoption, documented as a product offering in 2022 and referenced in the homepage "Start for free" CTA.
- Enterprise services and enablement: Enterprise implementation services including on-site customer-facing team training, dedicated account management, and integration launch support that complement recurring subscriptions and accelerate expansion (e.g., BILL's 40+ HRIS integration launch).
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Per seat | Annual | Agent Handler for Employees — seat-based pricing |
| Usage-based | Pay-as-you-go | Merge Gateway — usage-based with optional subscription |
| Freemium | Annual | Merge Unified — free tier for startups + enterprise quote-based plans |
Go-to-market motion4 records
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels8 records
Merge product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Merge sells a unified API platform that gives B2B SaaS products access to 220+ customer-facing integrations across HR, payroll, accounting, ATS, CRM, ticketing, file storage, knowledge base, chat, and marketing automation through a single normalized data model. Layered on this core are Merge Agent Handler, MCP-compatible governance tooling that lets AI agents take authenticated actions across enterprise systems with DLP and audit logs, and Merge Gateway, an LLM control plane that fronts every major model provider with intelligent routing, spend caps, and observability.
Product overview
Merge sells a connective-infrastructure platform for production AI rather than a single monolithic product. The core product is Merge Unified, a unified API that gives B2B SaaS customers access to 220+ customer-facing integrations across HR/Payroll, Accounting, ATS, CRM, File Storage, Ticketing, Chat, Knowledge Base, and Marketing Automation through one normalized data model and integration observability tooling. On top of the unified API, Merge sells two add-on modules that extend the platform into AI-agent and LLM workloads: Merge Agent Handler (MCP-compatible agentic tooling, with variants for Products and Employees) and Merge Gateway (an LLM control plane that fronts every major model with intelligent routing, cost controls, and DLP). Together, the three products let engineering, IT, and product teams build and govern AI features and agents without owning the underlying integration, authentication, or model-routing stacks.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Merge Unified: The company's original Unified API product offering customer-facing integrations across HR, payroll, accounting, ATS, CRM, ticketing, file storage, and other software categories.
- Merge Agent Handler
- Merge Gateway
Products and services
- Merge Unified Unified REST API that gives B2B SaaS products access to 220+ customer-facing integrations across HR, Payroll, Accounting, Ticketing, CRM, ATS, File Storage, Chat, Knowledge Base, and Marketing Automation through a single normalized data model. Includes Integration Observability, scopes, selective sync, redact unmapped data, custom fields, Custom Objects (CRM), multi-region data residency (US/EU/APAC), SAML SSO, and role-based access control. Designed for product and engineering teams at B2B SaaS companies, AI companies, FinTechs, and HR tech vendors.
- Merge Agent Handler Agentic tooling product that connects AI agents to thousands of pre-built MCP-compatible enterprise tools with scoped permissions, DLP, and complete audit logs. Sold in two variants: Agent Handler for Products (production-ready MCP connectors for product and engineering teams) and Agent Handler for Employees (IT governance over employee use of Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, n8n, with seat-based pricing).
- Merge Gateway LLM control plane providing a single OpenAI-compatible API endpoint that fronts every major LLM provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, Grok, Mistral, Cohere) with intelligent routing, automatic failover, per-customer spend caps, DLP, prompt-injection protection, Build Your Own Router scoring, and observability. Customers pay provider LLM usage rates plus a small Merge margin; BYOK usage billed at $0.05 per million tokens.
Quantifiable outcome
- Add integrations 10x faster (Foxit)
- +9 more outcomes
Companies that use Merge
Customer profileNamed customers55 records
Segments6 records
Ideal customer profiles6 records
Merge technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration58 records
AI capability4 records
Feature6 records
Merge partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Four partnerships are on record, tiered core.
- Azilen TechnologiescoreAzilen Technologies was recognized as an official Merge Service Partner to help HRTech SaaS customers in the US, Canada, and Europe design, implement, and scale HR and HRIS integrations on Merge's unified API, including Workday, SAP SuccessFactors, and ADP.
- BambooHRcoreBambooHR was announced as a Merge integration partner alongside the $15M Series A funding round, enabling HR and payroll data sync via Merge's HRIS Unified API.
- LevercoreLever was announced as a Merge ATS integration partner alongside the November 2021 Series A.
- UKGcoreUKG (Ultimate Kronos Group) was announced as a Merge HR/payroll integration partner alongside the November 2021 Series A.
Scale indicators10 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights7 records
Merge competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Plaid: Plaid is the dominant unified API for financial account data, comparable to Merge on the unified-API model and normalized-data-model approach, though more focused on consumer-permissioned bank data while Merge spans HR, ATS, CRM, and beyond.
- Apideck: Apideck offers a unified API product (Unify) exposing hundreds of integrations across CRM, HRIS, accounting, ATS, and more — directly competing with Merge Unified on normalized APIs for SaaS embedding use cases.
- Finch: Finch is a unified API purpose-built for HR, payroll, benefits, and ATS data — directly competing with Merge's HRIS category and serving the same B2B SaaS embedder buyer.
- StackOne: StackOne provides a unified API for HRIS, ATS, CRM, accounting, and other back-office systems targeting SaaS companies — closely comparable to Merge Unified's normalized data model and developer-first motion.
- Paragon: Paragon is an embedded integration platform-as-a-service used by SaaS companies to ship customer-facing integrations via a single API — overlapping directly with Merge's core offering and developer audience.
- Nango: Nango offers an open-source unified API for dozens of integrations targeted at developer-first SaaS teams — competing head-to-head with Merge on integration breadth and normalized data models, often with a self-host angle.
Broad incumbents
- Workato: Workato is an enterprise integration and automation platform covering thousands of connectors and broader workflow orchestration — a broad incumbent with overlapping integration capabilities but a different (iPaaS) primary use case.
- MuleSoft (Salesforce): MuleSoft is Salesforce's enterprise integration platform with API management, iPaaS, and a broad connector catalog — a broad incumbent whose API-led connectivity competes with Merge at the enterprise top of the market.
- Tray.io: Tray.io is a general-purpose integration and workflow automation platform with a connector library comparable in breadth to Merge — a broad incumbent in the same integration platform category but focused on internal automation versus Merge's customer-facing embedder motion.
Emerging players
- OpenRouter: OpenRouter provides a unified API for routing requests across multiple LLM providers — directly comparable to Merge Gateway's LLM routing and cost-control functionality for production AI workloads.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Merge social profiles
Digital presenceMerge compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance5 records
Merge financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Merge leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles5 records
Merge funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds3 records
Investors7 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Merge M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Merge
What does Merge do?
Merge sells a unified API platform that gives B2B SaaS products access to 220+ customer-facing integrations across HR, payroll, accounting, ATS, CRM, ticketing, file storage, knowledge base, chat, and marketing automation through a single normalized data model. Layered on this core are Merge Agent Handler, MCP-compatible governance tooling that lets AI agents take authenticated actions across enterprise systems with DLP and audit logs, and Merge Gateway, an LLM control plane that fronts every major model provider with intelligent routing, spend caps, and observability.
Is Merge a public or private company?
Merge is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Merge founded?
Merge was founded in 2020. It employs 101 to 250 people.
Where is Merge based?
Merge is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
How does Merge make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. Subscription for Unified API and Agent Handler is the primary driver. The others are usage-based LLM pass-through via Merge Gateway, freemium / free tier for startups and enterprise services and enablement.
Who are Merge's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Plaid, Apideck, Finch, StackOne, Paragon and Nango. Broad incumbents are Workato, MuleSoft (Salesforce) and Tray.io. OpenRouter is listed as an emerging player.
Does Merge have an API?
Yes. Merge Unified is a unified REST API that gives B2B SaaS products access to hundreds of customer-facing integrations (HR, Payroll, Accounting, Ticketing, CRM, ATS, File Storage, Chat, Knowledge Base, and Marketing Automation) through a single normalized data model. The platform standardizes authentication, pagination, rate limits, webhooks, and metadata across third-party sources, with searchable logs, role-based access, audit trail, and SDKs available in multiple languages. Merge Agent Handler exposes MCP-compatible tool endpoints, and Agent Handler for Employees works with any MCP-compatible AI interface (Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, n8n). Merge Gateway is a control-plane API (base URL gateway.merge.dev/v1) that fronts multiple LLM providers with a single API key. Developer documentation is at docs.merge.dev.
What industry is Merge in?
Merge's product category is Unified API Integration Platform. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAAAGAJ, B2B SaaS & Enterprise Personalization (CRM, Sales, Support), with a secondary code of BPAMAOAJ, B2B/EDI & Partner Integration. Its NAICS code is 54151 and its SIC code is 7370.