Why we Invested in Xapix

I am really happy to be joining the Board of Directors of Xapix and quickly want to highlight why we are excited to invest!

We like to invest in companies that solve a real pain point (who doesn’t?) and what pain point could be more relevant than orchestrating and organizing your data mess. As most people are aware there are huge challenges associated with connecting data in legacy and modern systems ahead of us. These are even more intensified with the growth of the API market (popularity of web APIs, number of public and private APIs, need secure API life-cycle mgmt, etc.) and the huge growth in mobility data due to autonomous vehicles and new ways of mobility providers and service models. So Xapix is exactly in that interface between these trends and is trying to solve this pain point.

What is Xapix and what pain points does it solve?

Faced with an ever increasing amount of data across various data sources, challenges associated with orchestrating data internally as well as externally will continue to rise. Xapix is a super fast, flexible and user-friendly tool for data integration. It helps mobility companies access, use and monetize their data by enabling connections between new and existing systems. But Xapix is more than a simple bridge from old to new technologies — it helps free up developer resources and lets companies focus on their core business! What makes Xapix awesome:

• Flexible and highly customizable
  Xapix is independent from programming languages, hosting problems, and iterates faster than competing approaches. Xapix flexibly supports REST, SOAP, event streaming and several SQL databases as inputs and enables on the fly configuration of REST, SOAP, or event streams as an output — also based on historically grown data sources.
• Powerful data transformation/integration solution
  At the core of Xapix is a powerful data transformation engine that lets you transform and integrate data faster than ever. As an orchestration layer around 100ms of latency are added. What’s more, parts of the Xapix tooling are automated, for example the Swagger / Open API Spec and WSDL (SOAP) import and update features.
• Data publishing, monetization and performance
  Xapix allows for easy tracking of usage and performance of APIs so that you can start monetizing your API services. Internal and external users are granted access and their access to data can be securely managed. The software features end-to-end analytics and intelligence to ensure maximum uptime and performance.
• Integrate and cooperate easier with 3rd parties
  There is a significant market pull by consumers for possibilities to access new products and services — an opportunity which opens the door for increased revenue or access to necessary, external tools. Addressing this need, Xapix offers a faster and cheaper way for companies to integrate with 3rd party services. It provides a communication layer, controlled by the client, which helps map APIs internally as well as to the outside world. Ultimately, this helps reduce friction and complexity when working with clients and partners.
• Communicate in a secure and compliant way
  With data privacy being one the most crucial topics currently being discussed — especially in mobility — it is essential for industrials to ensure maximum data security. Xapix helps fulfill this requirement: it runs its on-premise solution which is compliant with all European security and privacy standards.
• Accelerate time to market
  An ultimate selling point is the accelerated time to market when using Xapix. Let’s first consider a scenario without Xapix: to deal with their data mess, companies have to staff entire dedicated developer teams or work with external agencies before even starting with data orchestration. As time goes by and product portfolios grow, required resources to handle data sources multiply. Using Xapix, companies achieve a shorter time to market using a product that is intuitive and can handle APIs on the go.

How does Xapix fit into the stack of mobility and data management?

The technology stack in mobility has already seen different solutions aimed at data management. Specifically, multiple API management platforms — both generic and mobility focused — position themselves between different software solutions to enable API integration and management of the API lifecycle. So where does Xapix fit in? Xapix represents a data orchestration layer which makes legacy and complex enterprise systems compatible to modern API protocols in the first place (see image below). Thereby, Xapix is not competing with existing API management platforms but instead bears potential for multiple synergies for companies like Otonomo and Smartcar. Hence, we envision multiple partnerships with established providers in the future.

Positioning of Xapix

Why do we think this is an interesting market?

The market for API management is expected to grow from $1bn in 2018 to $3.4bn in 2022 — a threefold market size! There are multiple drivers which are shaping this market (and making it a very hot space):

1. Growth of Big Data and IoT
2. Increasing opening up and access to other departments or third-parties
3. Need for better life-cycle management of API traffic
4. Growing number of mobile devices
5. Growing popularity of web APIs
6. Growing number of both public and private APIs

All of this is true for the mobility sector and in some cases even more true than compared to other sectors or industries.

Why we are convinced that this is the right team to tackle this market

From the first meeting onwards we had a very strong impression of Christian and Oliver, both individually and as a team, and also due to their background in trying to solve these kind of problems at different companies before. Christian has consistently dealt with the product and business development side of API projects at great names like Lufthansa, Uber and MIT. In addition, Oliver has a long track record in backend dev at different startups. Christian, Oliver and the whole team convinced us that they are they right team to tackle this billion dollar opportunity.

So we are happy to become part of this journey and a very much looking forward to the next months and years!