Orthogonal
Orthogonal provides a unified API gateway and marketplace that lets AI agents and developers discover, call, and pay for 40+ third-party services through a single integration, targeting AI-native startups, GTM teams, and developer-led workflows on a pay-per-call model.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2026
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Orthogonal does
Orthogonal operates a unified API gateway and marketplace that enables AI agents and developers to discover, authenticate with, call, and pay for 40+ third-party internet services through a single integration point. The platform pools credentials, normalizes request and response shapes across providers, and supports multiple payment rails — promotional credits, the x402 protocol for autonomous USDC stablecoin micropayments on Base, and the Machine Payments Protocol (MPP) co-developed with Tempo and Stripe — so an agent can describe a need in natural language and receive a verified, paid result without holding individual API keys. Distribution is exclusively self-serve through a TypeScript SDK, REST API, MCP server (compatible with Claude and Cursor), and CLI, with the same key working across all surfaces.
The core technology is an aggregation and orchestration layer rather than a proprietary AI model. Orthogonal integrates enrichment providers (Apollo, People Data Labs, Coresignal, Crustdata, CompanyEnrich, Fundable, PredictLeads, Ocean.io, Nyne, Captain Data, Bytemine, RocketReach, Findymail, Icypeas), web search and scraping services (Linkup, Serper, Andi Search, You.com, Riveter, ScrapeGraphAI, Olostep, Notte, Scrape Creators, Seltz), social/LinkedIn automation (Edges), productivity SaaS via Composio OAuth (Gmail, Calendar, Slack, GitHub, Notion, Drive, Sheets), creator data (Influencers.club), and specialized services (AgentPhone for telephony, Tako for analytics, Fantastic.jobs for job data, Precip for weather, Brand.dev and Context.dev for brand intelligence, Didit for identity, Happenstance for network search, OpenFunnel for market events, Voygr for business validation). Every provider is tested before going live and monitored for uptime.
Orthogonal runs a pure product-led, pay-per-call revenue model with no subscriptions or minimums, charging roughly $0.01–$0.04 per call plus any underlying provider markup. Customer segments are AI-native startups, go-to-market and revenue teams running agent workflows, investors using AI for research, and recruiting teams. The company is privately held, incorporated in Delaware as Orth Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, founded January 2026 by Christian Pickett (ex-Coinbase, Vercel) and Bera Sogut (ex-Google, Amazon Robotics; two-time ACM ICPC World Finalist), and backed by a $4.3 million seed round led by Pantera Capital with participation from Y Combinator (W26 batch), Pioneer Fund, Decasonic, Blast, Outbound, and Surreal.
Orthogonal firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Orthogonal
- Legal name
- Orth Inc.
- Website
- https://orthogonal.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2026
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Orthogonal provides a unified API gateway and marketplace that lets AI agents and developers discover, call, and pay for 40+ third-party services through a single integration, targeting AI-native startups, GTM teams, and developer-led workflows on a pay-per-call model.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Orthogonal industry classification
Industry- Product category
- API Integration Platform
- NAICS
- Financial Transactions Processing, Reserve, and Clearinghouse Activities (522320)
- SIC
- Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Payment Gateways & API Connectivity (FSAGABAB)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Developer APIs & Node Access (RPC providers, node infrastructure APIs) (FSAPABAC), RPC / Node API Infrastructure Providers (FSADAKAD)
Keywords
Where Orthogonal is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices2 records
Markets served
Orthogonal business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- Pay-per-call API Usage: Usage-based model where customers pay per API call made through the platform. Each request is metered and billed individually based on the pricing set by the underlying API provider plus any applicable Orthogonal platform fees. Customers can purchase credits through the dashboard with auto top-up available. No subscriptions or minimums required.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Usage-based | Pay-as-you-go | Free Credits Tier - $10 free credits to start |
| Usage-based | Pay-as-you-go | Pay-per-call model |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels4 records
Orthogonal product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Orthogonal provides a unified API gateway and marketplace that enables AI agents and developers to discover, access, and pay for 40+ verified third-party APIs (company data, web search, email, enrichment, social, telephony, etc.) through a single integration. The platform handles authentication pooling, request/response normalization, and metered billing, and is delivered via TypeScript SDK, REST API, MCP server, and CLI. It supports credit-based pay-per-call pricing as well as autonomous payment via x402 (USDC) and MPP (Machine Payments Protocol) rails.
Product overview
Orthogonal is an API gateway and marketplace that provides AI agents with a unified platform to discover, access, and pay for 40+ premium third-party internet services. The core platform comprises the Unified API gateway (accessible via TypeScript SDK, REST API, MCP Server, and CLI), the API Marketplace catalog, and payment infrastructure supporting credits, x402 protocol (autonomous USDC payments on Base blockchain), and MPP (Machine Payments Protocol with multi-method support including stablecoins, cards, and Bitcoin). The platform integrates with third-party data and service providers including company intelligence services (Apollo, People Data Labs, Coresignal, Crustdata, CompanyEnrich, Fundable, PredictLeads, Ocean.io, Aviato), enrichment tools (ContactOut, Tomba, Fiber AI, Nyne, Captain Data, Sixtyfour, Bytemine), web search and scraping (Linkup, Serper, Andi Search, You.com, Riveter, ScrapeGraphAI, Olostep, Notte, Scrape Creators, Seltz), social media automation (Edges for LinkedIn/Sales Navigator), communications via Composio OAuth (Gmail, Google Calendar, Slack, GitHub, Notion, Google Drive, Google Sheets), creator data (Influencers.club), and specialized services including AgentPhone (telephony), Tako (analytics), Fantastic.jobs (job data), Precip (weather), Brand.dev (brand data), Didit (identity verification), Happenstance (network search), OpenFunnel (market events), Voygr (business validation), and RocketReach, Findymail, Icypeas (sales intelligence). The platform solves the friction between human-centric API infrastructure and agentic workflows by pooling credentials, normalizing responses, and enabling metered pay-per-call billing with autonomous payment capabilities.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Orthogonal Unified API Platform Unified API gateway and marketplace that gives AI agents and developers a single integration to discover, authenticate with, call, and pay for 40+ verified third-party internet services (company data, web search, email, enrichment, social, telephony, etc.). Handles credential pooling, request/response normalization, and metered billing, and is accessible via TypeScript SDK, REST API, MCP server, and CLI.
- Orthogonal TypeScript SDK (@orth/sdk) Official TypeScript/JavaScript SDK published as @orth/sdk that lets developers integrate Orthogonal into agent workflows with a minimal code footprint, supporting the discover, call, and pay flow against any integrated provider.
- Orthogonal MCP Server Model Context Protocol server that exposes Orthogonal's 40+ verified APIs as MCP tools so AI agents in Claude, Cursor, and other MCP-compatible clients can discover and call paid services natively without separate configuration.
- Orthogonal REST API REST API endpoints for programmatic access to Orthogonal's platform and integrated third-party services, enabling the discover, call, and pay workflow over standard HTTP requests with x402 and MPP payment protocol endpoints for autonomous agent payments.
- Orthogonal CLI Command-line interface (CLI) for developers who prefer terminal-based workflows to browse the API marketplace and make API calls directly from the terminal using the same key as the SDK and other channels.
Quantifiable outcome
- Agents can make first API call in under a minute
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use Orthogonal
Customer profileNamed customers6 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Orthogonal technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration9 records
AI capability7 records
Feature6 records
Orthogonal partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Four partnerships are on record, tiered core.
- TempocorePartnership to bring Machine Payments Protocol (MPP) to Orthogonal. MPP is an IETF-track standard co-authored by Tempo and Stripe for machine-to-machine payments. Enables multi-method payments, sessions, streaming for autonomous agent payments.
- Apollo.iocoreB2B intelligence platform with 210M+ contacts and 30M+ companies integrated for lead enrichment. Supports x402 for autonomous agent payments.
- Apollo.iocoreAI sales platform with access to 210M+ contacts and 30M+ company records integrated as enrichment tool for autonomous agents and developers on Orthogonal platform.
- LinkupcoreWeb search API designed specifically for AI applications and agents. Provides natural language search, structured output, and web page fetching. Supports x402 protocol for autonomous payments.
Scale indicators6 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Orthogonal competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- RapidAPI: RapidAPI operates a public API marketplace and unified gateway letting developers discover and consume many APIs through one account. It is comparable to Orthogonal's API marketplace and gateway model, though RapidAPI predates the AI-agent use case and lacks native machine-payment rails.
- Pipedream: Pipedream is a developer integration and workflow automation platform connecting thousands of APIs with code-level control. It is comparable as an API-aggregation and orchestration layer, though targeted at general developer workflows rather than AI-agent payments specifically.
- Merge.dev: Merge.dev offers a unified API for SaaS integrations (CRM, HRIS, ATS, etc.) targeting product teams. It is comparable to Orthogonal in offering a single-integration model across many third-party APIs, though Merge is more enterprise-focused on HR/CRM categories versus Orthogonal's AI-agent-native enrichment and payments focus.
- Composio: Composio provides OAuth-based unified integrations for AI agents across 1,000+ apps (Gmail, Slack, GitHub, etc.) and is explicitly integrated with Orthogonal. It is the most directly comparable platform in the AI-agent integration layer, though it focuses on OAuth app connectivity while Orthogonal emphasizes paid-API discovery and agent-native payments.
Broad incumbents
- Kong: Kong is an established API gateway and service-mesh platform used by enterprises to route, secure, and manage API traffic. It overlaps with Orthogonal at the API-gateway/integration layer but serves enterprise infrastructure teams rather than AI-agent developers specifically.
- Plaid: Plaid is a unified financial-data API platform connecting applications to thousands of banks and financial institutions. It is a comparable precedent for the 'one integration, many providers' model Orthogonal uses, scaled to the consumer-finance vertical with deep enterprise penetration.
- Stripe: Stripe is a global payments infrastructure provider and a co-author of the Machine Payments Protocol (MPP) that Orthogonal supports. It is comparable on the payment-rails side, particularly given Stripe's role in MPP, but does not currently aggregate third-party APIs for AI agents.
- Apigee (Google Cloud): Apigee is Google's enterprise API management platform providing API gateways, analytics, and monetization. It is comparable as an API-orchestration incumbent but is aimed at large enterprises managing traditional APIs, not the agent-native pay-per-call use case.
Emerging players
- Linkup: Linkup is a web-search API designed specifically for AI applications and agents — one of Orthogonal's core 'core' integration partners supporting x402. It is comparable as an emerging agent-native API provider that could also be accessed directly outside Orthogonal's gateway.
- Apify: Apify is a web-scraping and data-extraction platform offering a marketplace of 'actors' for various data APIs. It overlaps with several Orthogonal integrations (Scrape Creators, ScrapeGraphAI, Olostep) and is comparable as an emerging data-API marketplace, though narrower in scope than Orthogonal's full agent gateway.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Orthogonal social profiles
Digital presenceOrthogonal financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Orthogonal leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles2 records
Orthogonal funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds2 records
Investors7 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Orthogonal 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 Orthogonal
What does Orthogonal do?
Orthogonal provides a unified API gateway and marketplace that enables AI agents and developers to discover, access, and pay for 40+ verified third-party APIs (company data, web search, email, enrichment, social, telephony, etc.) through a single integration. The platform handles authentication pooling, request/response normalization, and metered billing, and is delivered via TypeScript SDK, REST API, MCP server, and CLI. It supports credit-based pay-per-call pricing as well as autonomous payment via x402 (USDC) and MPP (Machine Payments Protocol) rails.
Is Orthogonal a public or private company?
Orthogonal is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Orthogonal founded?
Orthogonal was founded in 2026. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Orthogonal based?
Orthogonal is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
How does Orthogonal make money?
One revenue line is on record: pay-per-call API Usage.
Who are Orthogonal's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are RapidAPI, Pipedream, Merge.dev and Composio. Broad incumbents are Kong, Plaid, Stripe and Apigee (Google Cloud). Emerging players are Linkup and Apify.
Does Orthogonal have an API?
Yes. Orthogonal provides a unified API platform that enables AI agents and developers to discover, access, authenticate with, and pay for third-party API services through a single integration point. The platform offers a unified API gateway for routing requests to third-party providers, pay-per-call billing with credits, x402 protocol for autonomous USDC payments, and MPP (Machine Payments Protocol) for multi-method payments including stablecoins, cards, and Bitcoin. Services are accessible via TypeScript SDK, REST API, MCP server for Claude and Cursor, and CLI, with per-call billing starting around $0.01. Developer documentation is at docs.orthogonal.com.
What industry is Orthogonal in?
Orthogonal's product category is API Integration Platform. Its primary akta.pro industry code is FSAGABAB, Payment Gateways & API Connectivity, with a secondary code of FSAPABAC, Developer APIs & Node Access (RPC providers, node infrastructure APIs). Its NAICS code is 522320 and its SIC code is 7370.