Merge Raises $4.5M Seed Round Led by NEA

SAN FRANCISCO, May 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Merge, the San Francisco and New York City-based API company which seeks to transform how B2B companies think about customer-facing integrations, today announced the close of a $4.5 million seed funding round. NEA led the round with Managing General Partner Scott Sandell joining Merge's board of directors.

Created in 2020, Merge provides a solution to the way B2B companies build and maintain an ever-growing number of integrations with other vendors in order to sell to and support their customers. Through its Unified API, Merge provides access to over 40+ HR, payroll, recruiting, and accounting platforms, effectively offering an integration layer for all business tools and applications. 

"Gil and I saw first-hand how B2B companies need to build and maintain new integrations as their customers demand them. We built Merge to help our customers make integrations their competitive advantage," said co-founder Shensi Ding.

"The time and expense associated with building and maintaining myriad API integrations is a pain point we hear about consistently from our portfolio companies across all industries," said Scott Sandell. "Merge is tackling this ubiquitous problem head-on via their easy-to-use, unified API platform. Their platform has broad applicability and is a massive upgrade for any software company that needs to build, manage, and maintain multiple API integrations."

Given that reliable integrations are vital to B2B companies, Merge prioritized enterprise-level scope, security, and quality from the start. "Scalability and developer confidence were our objectives right out of the gate," said Gil Feig, co-founder of Merge. "Our customers feel confident using our product because we've built an enterprise experience. We see ourselves as a trusted partner through the entire integration lifecycle." 

Merge's self-serve platform provides companies easy access to its Unified API. Since a public launch in March 2021, Merge has partnered with over 100 businesses to process over 67 million API requests.

Today also signals the release of Merge's new Accounting API. Rounding out its HRIS and ATS APIs, the introduction of accounting integrations further secures Merge's place as the expert on B2B integrations. The Accounting API unlocks an additional $7 billion in addressable market with both new and existing customers.

NEA Principal Andrew Schoen spoke of his firm's confidence in the leadership at Merge: "We had a fantastic experience working with Shensi Ding over the years at our portfolio company Expanse. We were thrilled when she told us she was considering founding a company, and we were lucky enough to get to know her co-founder Gil. We were immediately excited about the opportunity to work with the two of them: we were acutely aware of the market need for their envisioned product and knew right away that they would be amazing co-founders."

Looking forward, Merge plans to use this infusion of capital to grow its team, invest in its product experience, and expand into new markets. The current team of eight works in New York and San Francisco.

ABOUT MERGE
Merge provides the tools to transform how B2B companies realize customer-facing integrations. With Merge's Unified API, developers integrate just once and give their customers access to ~40 HR Information Systems (HRIS), Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), and Accounting integrations. Merge takes charge of the entire lifecycle of integrations and adds new platforms every week.

Merge has raised $4.5 million led by NEA, with angel investments from Greg Schott (former CEO of Mulesoft), Matthew Prince (CEO of Cloudflare), Tim Junio and Matt Kraning (Co-Founders of Expanse), and Ben Herman (CEO of Jumpstart). Merge was founded in 2020 by Shensi Ding and Gil Feig and is proudly built in San Francisco and New York City.

ABOUT NEA
New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA) is a global venture capital firm focused on helping entrepreneurs build transformational businesses across multiple stages, sectors and geographies. With nearly $24 billion in cumulative committed capital since the firm's founding in 1977, NEA invests in technology and healthcare companies at all stages in a company's lifecycle, from seed stage through IPO. The firm's long track record of successful investing includes more than 230 portfolio company IPOs and more than 390 mergers and acquisitions. www.nea.com.

SOURCE Merge