Kong
Kong sells API and AI connectivity software used by Fortune 500 companies and startups. The San Francisco-based company has raised $344M, most recently in a Series E round in November 2024, and employs 1,052 people.
The growth story
Kong grew from 515 to 1,052 employees between 2023 and 2026, raising $344M along the way, most recently a Series E in November 2024.
About
Kong develops software that helps companies manage and secure API and AI traffic across different cloud platforms. Its tools allow organizations to control, accelerate, and monetize data flows between APIs and AI models.
The company has raised $344M across five funding rounds, with its latest Series E closing in November 2024. Its investor group includes Andreessen Horowitz, Balderton Capital, and CRV. Kong employs 1,052 people, with sales being its largest function at 151 staff.
Founders and leadership
Sales is Kong's largest department with 151 employees. The company's leadership includes investors from firms like Andreessen Horowitz and Balderton Capital. Median employee tenure is one year.
The Kong org chart
Augusto Marietti (ceo/co-founder) leads 60 mapped leaders with 8 direct reports. Click +N to expand a team; names link to the person’s public profile.
Departments, and which ones grew
Headcount by function: Engineering 332 (+24% YoY), Sales 184 (+19% YoY), Business Development 68 (+28% YoY), Human Resources 52 (+37% YoY), Customer Success and Support 51 (+42% YoY), Information Technology 49 (+7% YoY).
Talent flow
Kong hires heavily from enterprise tech companies, with Oracle (39), IBM (32), and Confluent (29) being top sources. Alumni most often move to Google, Salesforce, and solo.io. Seven employees attended UC Berkeley, the most of any school.
Most common previous employers of Kong staff: Oracle (39), IBM (32), Confluent (29), Amazon Web Services (AWS) (26), MongoDB (21), VMware (18). Former Kong employees most often moved to Google (10), Salesforce (10), solo.io (9), Grafana Labs (7), Harness (6), ClickHouse (6).
Alumni worth knowing
The Kong mafia
Kong alumni have founded 25 companies, including STUDY4 (17 staff), Toolhouse (16 staff), and QuitCarbon (12 staff).
25Orlando Kalossakas, was Product Growth Engineer until 2015Cooper Marcus, was Director of Ecosystem until 2018Nick Curiale, was Enterprise Account Executive until 2022Nik Wakelin, was Product Lead, Gelato until 2016Alexandre Gervais, was Staff Software Developer until 2025
Bao Mai, was Software Engineer until 2020
Yvonne Lam, was Staff Software Engineer until 2023
Mark Brimm, was Content Marketing Strategist until 2020
Tiara Heesen, was Senior Tech Sales until 2024
Stefan Ragland, was Data Analyst until 2025
Vladimir Novosselov, was Sales Business Development until 2014
Ashley Griffin, was Executive Assistant until 2021
Michael Proia, was Vice President of Sales until 2023
Simon Hayes, was Enterprise Account Executive until 2022
Guanlan Dai, was Site Lead until 2025
Umair Waheed, was Director of Product Marketing, EMEA until 2025
Shane Connelly, was Director of Product Management until 2022
Montana Flynn, was Head Of Product until 2015
Alexis Schmidt, was RVP West Sales until 2023
John Hyttinen, was Senior Director, Global Total Rewards, HR Technology & Analytics until 2025
Fadi Yousuf, was Regional Sales Manager until 2023
Eddy L., was Product until 2024
Luigi Manzo, was Customer Success Engineer EMEA until 2019Hiring now
Web traffic
Traffic mix: 40% direct, 40% search, 8% social, 1% paid.
What this company is made of
Most common skills at Kong: Leadership (267), Management (259), Cloud Computing (233), Sales (217), Java (208), Microsoft Office (205), Software as a Service (SaaS) (205), SQL (204).
Where the team actually sits
Kong people are concentrated in Karnataka, India (59), England, United Kingdom (52), California, United States (46), San Francisco Bay Area (27). 10 offices on record.
Search footprint
Kong attracts about 18,610 organic search visits a month, traffic worth roughly $90K a month if bought through ads. It gained 2,034 ranking keywords and lost 1,754 in the last period.
What employees say
- Compensation
- 4.40 / 5
- Career opportunities
- 4.50 / 5
- Senior management
- 4.30 / 5
- Work-life balance
- 4.40 / 5
Frequently asked
Kong has 1,052 employees as of September 2026.
Kong has raised $344M in total, most recently a Series E round in November 2024.
Kong was founded in 2017 by Marco Palladino, Augusto Marietti.
Augusto Marietti (ceo/co-founder) sits at the top of Kong's reporting structure, with 8 direct reports.
The most common previous employers of current Kong staff are Oracle (39 people), IBM (32 people), Confluent (29 people).
Former Kong employees most often move to Google (10), Salesforce (10), solo.io (9).
At least 25 companies have a founder who previously worked at Kong, including STUDY4, Toolhouse, QuitCarbon.
Kong attracts about 18,610 organic search visits a month, worth roughly $90K a month in equivalent ad spend.
The most common skills among Kong staff are Leadership, Management, Cloud Computing, Sales, Java.
Kong staff are concentrated in Karnataka, India (59), England, United Kingdom (52), California, United States (46).
Kong has about 332 people in Engineering, up 24% over the past year, as of September 2026.
Kong has about 184 people in Sales, up 19% over the past year, as of September 2026.
Computed from 586 current and 730 former Kong profiles, as of September 2026. Source: Crustdata.
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