Apollo GraphQL Announces $130 Million Series D Investment to Power the Future of Graph and Application Development

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif, Aug. 17, 2021 – Apollo GraphQL, the pioneer in the use of open source and commercial GraphQL API technologies, announced today a $130 million Series D funding round led by New York-based global private equity and venture capital firm Insight Partners with participation from existing investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Matrix Partners, and Trinity Ventures. Andreessen Horowitz invested from its prestigious growth fund, which invests in select companies like Apollo who are executing on unusually big visions for emerging categories. Additional investors Next47 and Hatim Shafique, Chief Customer Officer at DataBricks, also participated.

Leveraging the explosive GraphQL movement, Apollo is pioneering the Graph as an essential new layer in the tech stack that serves as a unified representation of an organization’s services, data, and digital capabilities. The Graph empowers developers to deliver better experiences, faster; isolates service complexity; and serves as a single place for application development collaboration, without coupling.

The desire for the Graph is evident in Apollo’s rapid growth, with over 30% of Fortune 500 companies already using Apollo. Today, Apollo processes over 6 billion queries daily on its platform and enterprise annual recurring revenue (ARR) nearly tripled over the last 12 months.

“The Graph is a developer-driven movement to change how companies build software, and Apollo is leading in supporting application developers, the primary value creators in software,” says Geoff Schmidt, cofounder and CEO of Apollo GraphQL. “Every company will need a graph strategy to keep pace in the digital era the same way they need a cloud strategy. This round is a win for all application developers, who can expect increased support for our open source community, as well as our forward-looking customers.”

“Under Apollo’s leadership, the Graph has the potential to reshape the world economy as a universal aggregator. Estimates are that there are already millions of GraphQL developers, and the number has been growing exponentially,” said Lonne Jaffe, Insight Partners. “Embracing the Graph is one of those key technology strategy decisions that will have huge implications for a company’s future competitiveness, like adopting the public cloud or leveraging data to make predictions.”

Apollo has assembled the largest community of GraphQL tech leaders and developers who are building the future of application development. Leaders in every vertical choose the Apollo Graph Platform, including forward-thinking organizations like Walmart, Paypal, Expedia, Wayfair, The New York Times, Zillow, and Audi.

“Apollo has brought the revolutionary technology of GraphQL to the enterprise through its commitment to the open source community and making the Graph a foundational pillar to the tech stack,” said David George, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. “Apollo’s mission and growth serves as a force multiplier for developers everywhere to have a bigger impact and change the way companies build software. It’s a different way of thinking about how to build applications that developers are adopting at a rapid pace.”

Apollo’s Graph Platform enables organizations to build and scale a graph safely, and overcome the complexity of application development. That complexity stifles innovation and holds companies back from delivering products at velocity. With the Graph, companies can drive unfair advantage, and accelerate product velocity and platform innovation.

“Using Apollo’s Graph, Expedia rebuilt its entire trips experience three times faster than our old approach. Adding new trip features to all our apps now takes days rather than months,” said Rick Fast, Vice President of Engineering at Expedia.

About Apollo GraphQL

Apollo GraphQL is the leader in open source and commercial GraphQL technologies. Apollo helps engineering teams build unified graphs to accelerate application development and deliver better, more cohesive experiences. Apollo’s open-source GraphQL client, server, and gateway are downloaded more than 17M times per month and used in production by over 30% of the Fortune 500. Customers like Walmart, Expedia, Glassdoor, Audi, and PayPal, use the Apollo Graph Platform to unify their GraphQL efforts, collaborate on graph development, and safely iterate on their graphs. Based in San Francisco, Apollo is backed by Insight Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Matrix Partners, and Trinity Ventures. Learn more at: https://www.apollographql.com.

About Insight Partners

Insight Partners is a leading global venture capital and private equity firm investing in high-growth technology and software ScaleUp companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. Founded in 1995, Insight Partners has invested in more than 400 companies worldwide and has raised through a series of funds more than $30 billion in capital commitments. Insight’s mission is to find, fund, and work successfully with visionary executives, providing them with practical, hands-on software expertise to foster long-term success. Across its people and its portfolio, Insight encourages a culture around a belief that ScaleUp companies and growth create opportunity for all. For more information on Insight and all its investments, visit insightpartners.com or follow us on Twitter @insightpartners.

Source: GraphQL