Kong Inc., the cloud native API company, has been named for the second consecutive year to the Forbes 2022 Cloud 100, the definitive ranking of the top 100 private cloud companies in the world, published by Forbes in partnership with Bessemer Venture Partners and Salesforce Ventures.

“On behalf of all Kongers, we are both humbled and proud to be a part of the Forbes Cloud 100 list for the second year in a row,” said Augusto Marietti, CEO and co-founder of Kong Inc. “We continue to listen to our customers and user community, who want faster, more secure and more efficient API connectivity in today’s increasingly digital world. This recognition is a testament to our team’s tireless hard work and dedication to building a reliable cloud native API platform that organizations and developer teams can trust in their cloud journey.”

Kong provides the fastest end-to-end API lifecycle management platform and the most adopted API gateway to empower businesses to build, design, run and govern API services. Built on battle-tested open source technology and enhanced with enterprise-grade features and support, Kong’s platform unleashes developer productivity, helping organizations grow faster, scale reliably and build more securely.

For the seventh straight year, the Cloud 100 reviews submissions from hundreds of cloud startups and private companies each year. The Cloud 100 evaluation process involved ranking companies across four factors: market leadership (35%), estimated valuation (30%), operating metrics (20%), and people & culture (15%). For market leadership, the Cloud 100 enlists the help of a judging panel of public cloud company CEOs who assist in evaluating and ranking their private company peers.

Marketing Technology News: Gadget Enables Developers to Quickly Build and Scale Ecommerce Apps That Connect to Shopify’s 1.7…

“The companies of the Cloud 100 list represent the best and brightest private companies in this fast-growing sector,” said Alex Konrad, senior editor at Forbes. “Every year, it gets more difficult to make this list — meaning even more elite company for those who do. Congratulations to each of the 2022 Cloud 100 honorees.”

“The public markets may be in turmoil, but the private valuations of the Cloud 100 continue to rise. All of the 2022 Cloud 100 honorees, again, have reached the $1 billion valuation milestone, and the average Cloud 100 valuation has skyrocketed to $7.4 billion,” said Mary D’Onofrio, partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. “Despite the market correction in 2022, our confidence in the cloud economy continues to grow—today over 70% of the 2022 Cloud 100 Honorees have reached or exceeded $100 million in annual recurring revenue making them cloud Centaurs. An additional 10% of the list is expected to hit this milestone by the end of the year, furthering our conviction that this year’s honorees truly represent the best cloud companies globally.”

“Great companies are born out of all environments, and it’s exciting to see the continued momentum in the cloud sector,” said Alex Kayyal, Managing Partner, Salesforce Ventures. ”The companies on this list have gone through a rigorous selection process, and join an esteemed alumni list of Cloud 100 companies. As the need for digital transformation continues to drive innovation and efficiencies across industries, we can look to these companies as the absolute best in cloud computing.“

Marketing Technology News: MarTech Interview With Emmanuel Cohen, Head of Marketing at Walnut