Postman, Inc.
Company History
Postman History: Founding, Growth & Key Milestones
Founded 2014 in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
When was Postman founded?
Postman was founded in 2014 in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India by Abhinav Asthana, Ankit Sobti and Abhijit Kane, making it 12 years old.
- Founded
- 2014
- Founding place
- Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
- Founders
- Abhinav Asthana, Ankit Sobti and Abhijit Kane
- Headquarters today
- San Francisco, California, United States
- Milestones documented
- 11 (2012–2026)
- Current CEO
- Abhinav Asthana
- Acquisitions
- 4
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 2012 | Postman Chrome app launched |
| 2014 | Postman, Inc. founded |
| 2015 | $1M seed round |
| 2017 | HQ moves to San Francisco |
| 2019 | $50M Series B |
| 2020 | $150M Series C at $2B |
| 2021 | $225M Series D at $5.6B |
| 2023 | Akita acquisition and Postbot |
| 2024 | Orbit acquisition and Postman v11 |
| 2025 | liblab acquisition |
| 2026 | Fern, new platform and Fabric Gateway |
- Where was Postman founded?
- Postman was founded in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India in 2014.
- Who founded Postman?
- Postman was founded by Abhinav Asthana, Ankit Sobti and Abhijit Kane.
- When did Postman start?
- Postman was founded in 2014.
- How old is Postman?
- Postman is 12 years old as of 2026.
Founding Story
In 2012 Abhinav Asthana, then an engineer at Yahoo in Bengaluru, was tired of fiddly tools for testing APIs, so he built a small Chrome app to send HTTP requests and read responses. He called it Postman, a play on the HTTP POST request, and put it on the Chrome Web Store for free. It reached about 500,000 users without marketing, and Asthana recruited former colleagues Ankit Sobti and Abhijit Kane to turn it into a company in 2014.
Founders
Abhinav Asthana
Abhinav Asthana is the co-founder and CEO of Postman. He started Postman as a side project to make API testing less painful, released it free on the Chrome Web Store, and after it reached about 500,000 users recruited Ankit Sobti and Abhijit Kane to found the company in 2014. As CEO he led the move of headquarters to San Francisco in 2017, raised about $433 million including the 2021 Series D at a $5.6 billion valuation, and has led the company's 2025-2026 push into SDKs, documentation and AI agent infrastructure through the liblab and Fern acquisitions and the Fabric Gateway launch. Abhinav Asthana was born in 1987.
Ankit Sobti
Ankit Sobti is a co-founder of Postman and its Chief Technology Officer. He joined Asthana in 2014 to turn the Chrome app into a company and has overseen the engineering that took Postman from a browser extension to desktop and web clients and a cloud platform used by more than 500,000 companies. (Exact birth year remains publicly undisclosed).
Abhijit Kane
Abhijit Kane is a co-founder of Postman. He was one of the two former colleagues Asthana recruited in 2014 when the Chrome app's growth made it clear Postman could be a company, and he remains part of the founding leadership team. (Exact birth year remains publicly undisclosed).
Key Milestones
Postman Chrome app launched
Abhinav Asthana releases Postman free on the Chrome Web Store while working at Yahoo in Bengaluru.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHQ moves to San Francisco
Postman relocates its corporate headquarters from Bengaluru.
Source: bwdisrupt.com$225M Series D at $5.6B
Insight Partners leads; Coatue, CRV, Nexus, Battery Ventures and BOND participate.
Source: livemint.comAkita acquisition and Postbot
Postman buys Akita Software and introduces its Postbot AI assistant.
Source: devops.comOrbit acquisition and Postman v11
Postman acquires Orbit and ships v11 with AI features.
Source: devopsdigest.comliblab acquisition
Postman acquires SDK generation platform liblab in November.
Source: businesswire.comFern, new platform and Fabric Gateway
Fern acquired in January; AI-native platform and Free/Solo/Team/Enterprise pricing in March; Fabric Gateway generally available September 29.
Source: businesswire.comMajor Acquisitions
Akita Software
2023API observability startup founded by former Carnegie Mellon professor Jean Yang that models APIs from live traffic.
Orbit
2024Platform for building and managing developer communities.
liblab
2025Dallas-based platform that automates generation and maintenance of SDKs, announced November 14, 2025.
Fern
2026Docs and SDK company with 25 staff and more than 200 customers, announced January 8, 2026.
Keep researching Postman
Postman Company History FAQ
What are the major milestones in Postman's history?
2012: Chrome app released. 2014: company founded. 2015: $1M seed from Nexus. 2016: native desktop apps after Chrome Apps phase-out. 2017: HQ moves to San Francisco. 2020: $150M Series C at $2B. 2021: $225M Series D at $5.6B. 2023: Akita acquired. 2025: liblab acquired. 2026: Fern acquired, AI-native platform and Fabric Gateway launched.
How did the Postman Public API Network transform third-party API onboarding in 2020?
Launched in 2020, the Postman Public API Network created the world's central marketplace for APIs, allowing developers to browse, fork, and test APIs from Stripe, Twilio, and Microsoft in a single click, eliminating weeks of manual API integration time.
What was the significance of Postman's $5.6 billion Series D in 2021?
In August 2021 Postman raised $225 million led by Insight Partners at a $5.6 billion valuation, which Mint reported made it India's most valuable SaaS unicorn at the time. It remains Postman's last disclosed priced round.
When did Postman introduce Postbot AI?
Postman introduced Postbot, its AI assistant for writing tests, docs and debugging requests, in 2023. AI features were expanded in Postman v11 in May 2024 and became central to the March 2026 platform.
How did Postman expand into visual programming with Postman Flows?
In 2022-2023, Postman introduced Postman Flows, enabling developers to build complete event-driven applications, data transformations, and automated business webhooks by connecting visual API blocks on an infinite digital canvas.
What changed at Postman in 2026?
Postman acquired Fern in January, launched a rebuilt AI-native, Git-native platform with an API Catalog and new Free, Solo, Team and Enterprise plans in March, and made Fabric Gateway generally available on September 29, 2026.
Where is Postman headquartered?
Postman moved its corporate headquarters from Bengaluru to San Francisco in 2017. It keeps large engineering operations in Bengaluru and an office in Tokyo.
How did Postman get its name?
Abhinav Asthana named the app Postman as a play on the HTTP POST request, since the tool delivers requests to APIs and brings back responses.
Related Strategic History
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