The archive · Developer & Business Tools · Financial decision · 2011–2019
Apollo raises $22M betting GraphQL's data graph becomes how apps fetch data
Meteor's team built Apollo Client/Server into a company: 25M+ downloads a year and NYT/Airbnb in production, then a $22M first round from a16z and Matrix
Apollo GraphQL
What the business is
Apollo builds the open-source Apollo Client and Apollo Server GraphQL libraries and sells a cloud platform that registers, validates, caches and secures the unified 'data graph' apps fetch from.
Starting capital：$22M first venture round announced 2019-06-12, co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Matrix Partners, with Trinity Ventures, Rod Johnson and Maynard Webb participating.
How it started
Apollo's roots go back to 2011, when co-founder Geoff Schmidt and his team created MeteorJS, a full-stack JavaScript framework that pioneered ideas Apollo kept: a single schema spanning client and server, a normalized client-side data store, and reactive UI binding with optimistic updates. In late 2015 the team started building a new data layer incorporating those learnings and named it the Apollo project; GraphQL's database-agnostic query language became its backbone. The result was open-source Apollo Client and Apollo Server, libraries that let developers fetch all the data a screen needs with one query instead of hand-writing per-service fetching, caching and loading-state code.
What happened
By the time of the round Apollo Client and Apollo Server had passed 25 million downloads in a single year and were in production across industries: Expedia was building a company-wide data graph, Audi launched the e-tron with a data graph, the New York Times homepage ran on Apollo, and Airbnb planned to use it across web, iOS and Android. On 2019-06-12 the company announced its first venture round, $22M co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Matrix Partners with Trinity Ventures, Rod Johnson and Maynard Webb participating. The capital was aimed at the commercial platform for managing graphs at scale — schema registration and discovery, change validation, query planning, caching, security policy and analytics — plus a larger field team for enterprise customers.
No ending yet — it is still running.
Background
Apollo is the developer-tools company behind Apollo Client and Apollo Server, the open-source GraphQL libraries, plus a commercial cloud platform for managing the unified 'data graph' that connects an app to its data sources. On 2019-06-12 it announced its first venture round: $22M co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Matrix Partners, with Trinity Ventures, Rod Johnson and Maynard Webb participating.
The company traces to 2011, when co-founder and CEO Geoff Schmidt's team created MeteorJS, a full-stack JavaScript framework whose ideas — a schema spanning client and server, a normalized client-side store, reactive UI binding with optimistic updates — became Apollo's foundation. In late 2015 the team began building a new data layer called the Apollo project, choosing GraphQL as its database-agnostic query language, and shipped Apollo Client and Apollo Server as open source.
The bet was that data management is the hardest problem in modern app development and that developers would standardize on a GraphQL data graph instead of hand-writing per-service fetching, caching and error-handling code. The community validated it: more than 25 million Apollo downloads in a single year, with Expedia building a company-wide data graph, Audi launching the e-tron on one, the New York Times homepage running on Apollo, and Airbnb planning to extend it across web, iOS and Android.
The $22M round was Apollo's first institutional capital and was earmarked for the commercial graph-management platform — schema registration, change validation, query planning, caching, security policy and analytics — and for growing the enterprise field team. The company's line was that open source stays the core; the paid platform is how the installed base becomes revenue. As of the announcement the company was live and scaling; this material records no later outcome.
What has to be true
- The demand proof came before the round: 25M+ downloads in 2018 and named production deployments at Expedia, Audi, the New York Times and Airbnb.
- The origin gave it credibility: Meteor's existing developer community and years of data-layer learnings meant Apollo shipped with a following rather than starting cold.
- The round was deliberately first and platform-shaped: a16z and Matrix co-led $22M into graph management for enterprises, not into another free library.
- GraphQL's timing helped: Apollo rode a rising query-language standard instead of asking developers to adopt a proprietary protocol.
What can be applied
Open-source reach is the proof, not the product: a free library developers pull in themselves creates the installed base, and funding comes when the company can sell the managed layer on top
Aftermath
As of 2019-06-12 Apollo was live and scaling: its open-source libraries had passed 25 million downloads in a year, production users included Expedia, Audi, the New York Times and Airbnb, and the company had just announced a $22M first venture round co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Matrix Partners. The announcement said the money would go into the commercial graph-management platform and the enterprise field team. This material ends at the announcement, so later rounds, leadership changes or business results are not recorded here.
Sources
- Apollo Raises $22 Million (BusinessWire announcement)
- Apollo raises $22M to simplify app development (Hacker News discussion)
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.
Your turn
You just read one. Describe what you are building, and see who is betting on the same thing.
Free account · 3 free questions · no card