Postman, Inc. is a private API platform company headquartered in San Francisco. Founded in 2014 by Abhinav Asthana, Ankit Sobti and Abhijit Kane, it makes software for designing, testing, documenting and governing APIs, was valued at $5.6 billion in 2021, and says more than 500,000 companies use it, including 98% of the Fortune 500.
What does Postman do?
Postman started as an API client: a tool for sending a request to an API and reading the response. It now covers the wider API lifecycle:
- API client and collections: requests for REST, GraphQL, gRPC, WebSocket and more, grouped into shareable collections with scripts, tests and environments.
- Testing, mocks and monitors: automated test runs in CI, mock servers for front-end work before a backend exists, and scheduled monitors.
- Workspaces and API Catalog: Git-connected team workspaces and, since March 2026, a catalog that acts as a management plane for an organization's APIs.
- AI features: Postbot and Agent Mode for generating tests and docs, metered through AI credits.
- Docs and SDKs: Fern and liblab, acquired in 2026 and 2025, generate documentation and client libraries.
- Fabric Gateway: a control plane, generally available since September 29, 2026, for governing how AI agents, LLMs and MCP servers call APIs.
How does Postman make money?
Postman sells subscriptions. From March 1, 2026 the Free plan supports one user; individuals can pay for Solo (about $9 a month), teams pay for Team (from about $19 per user per month) and large organizations sign Enterprise contracts that add SSO, SCIM, audit logs, governance and private API networks. AI credits above each plan's allowance are billed pay-as-you-go. Postman does not publish revenue, and online ARR figures are third-party estimates.
Origins
In 2012 Abhinav Asthana, an engineer at Yahoo in Bengaluru, built a Chrome app to make API testing easier and released it free. It reached about 500,000 users without marketing. He founded Postman, Inc. in 2014 with Ankit Sobti and Abhijit Kane, raised a $1 million seed round from Nexus Venture Partners in 2015, rebuilt the product as native desktop apps after Google announced the end of Chrome Apps in 2016, and moved headquarters to San Francisco in 2017.
Funding and ownership
Postman is privately held. It raised about $433 million: a $50 million Series B led by CRV in 2019, a $150 million Series C led by Insight Partners at a $2 billion valuation in 2020, and a $225 million Series D led by Insight Partners at a $5.6 billion valuation in August 2021. Other investors include Coatue, Nexus Venture Partners, Battery Ventures and BOND.
The Postman API Network
The Postman API Network lists more than 100,000 public APIs. Providers publish official workspaces and collections so developers can fork them and make a first call quickly. It is a key reason Postman stays the default tool in many teams.
Acquisitions and the 2026 strategy
Postman bought Akita Software, an API observability startup founded by former Carnegie Mellon professor Jean Yang, in 2023, and developer community platform Orbit in 2024. It then moved toward API consumers: liblab (SDK generation) in November 2025 and Fern (docs and SDKs, 25 staff and more than 200 customers) in January 2026. In March 2026 it launched a rebuilt AI-native, Git-native platform with new pricing, and on September 29, 2026 it made Fabric Gateway generally available. CEO Abhinav Asthana framed the gateway as the control layer for what AI agents can discover, access and do.
Competition and risks
Postman competes with API clients such as Insomnia (Kong), Bruno, Hoppscotch and Apidog, with SmartBear in design and testing, with Speakeasy and Stainless in SDK generation, and with Kong, Google Apigee and MuleSoft in gateways. The one-user free plan has pushed some small teams to cheaper Git-based tools, so Postman's challenge is to keep developer goodwill while selling more to enterprises.
