What a year we have had! Hypergrowth, a huge community, and lots of recognition. But what we are most proud of is how Kong's technology has impacted the world, thanks to our users. We can't thank these users and the community enough for making Kong the most adopted open source API gateway out there. In fact, our technology just crossed [30,000+ stars on Github](https://github.com/Kong/kong)30,000+ stars on Github.

And with over 2M instances and more than 257M downloads our [OSS community has more than doubled](https://konghq.com/blog/kong-gateway-oss-turns-six)OSS community has more than doubled over the last year.

This month we celebrate the anniversary of the start of Kong Inc., when we sold our Mashape API marketplace and decided to pivot our business focus 100% to our Kong open source project and introduce an enterprise version of the popular product to organizations across the world. It's been quite a journey. Four years later, we are happy to look back at all that we have accomplished over the past year.

## A Big Year for Kong

We recognize all the trials the world has faced this year. We also recognize that our team has worked to stay safe, reach out to others and continue to move our company forward. During this year, our team has almost doubled in size, with a mostly remote global workforce, and was [recognized as a Great Place to Work](https://www.greatplacetowork.com/certified-company/7020766#:~:text=94%25%20of%20employees%20at%20Kong,a%20typical%20U.S.%2Dbased%20company.&text=When%20you%20join%20the%20company%2C%20you%20are%20made%20to%20feel%20welcome.&text=People%20here%20are%20given%20a%20lot%20of%20responsibility.&text=You%20can%20count%20on%20people%20to%20cooperate.)recognized as a Great Place to Work.

### Hypergrowth

We have also continued our hypergrowth in revenue, as more and more companies trust Kong to help. In fact, just last week, Forbes added Kong to its annual [Cloud 100 ranking](https://konghq.com/press-release/2021-forbes-cloud-100)Cloud 100 ranking of the world's top private cloud companies. During the last year, Kong also ranked No. 69 on [Deloitte's Technology Fast 500™](https://konghq.com/press-release/kong-inc-ranks-no-29-inc-magazines-list-californias-fastest-growing-private-companies)Deloitte's Technology Fast 500™, which recognized Kong for a 1,908% growth, as well as No. 29 on the [second annual Inc. 5000 Regionals: California](https://www.inc.com/inc5000/regionals/california)second annual Inc. 5000 Regionals: California list, up from No. 41 last year.

### Investor Funding

Our investors have also taken notice of our hypergrowth. Earlier this year, we closed a [$100 million series D funding round](https://konghq.com/blog/announcing-100m-series-d-funding-to-accelerate-cloud-connectivity)$100 million series D funding round, tripling our valuation to $1.4 billion and allowing us to further accelerate our go-to-market operations.

### Analyst Recognition

This last year, we were also recognized by Gartner as a [Leader in the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Full Lifecycle API Management](https://konghq.com/blog/kong-named-leader-2020-gartner-magic-quadrant-api)Leader in the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Full Lifecycle API Management. Kong was recognized for its completeness of vision and ability to execute in the Leaders quadrant.

### Kong Konnect Plus

This year, we also announced the general availability of [Kong Konnect](https://konghq.com/kong-konnect)Kong Konnect, the service connectivity platform designed from the ground up for the cloud native era, delivered as a service. We also expanded open access to Kong Konnect, for everybody anywhere in the world, thanks to a [new plan called Konnect Plus](https://konghq.com/blog/kong-konnect-plus)new plan called Konnect Plus!

And we announced the availability of the Konnect SaaS layer in other geographies outside of the US. Specifically, our customers in Europe and Asia-Pacific geographies can now have access to a Konnect SaaS layer in their region if they have data privacy and compliance requirements that require it.

### Kong Summit

Another milestone for us this year is organizing our first completely virtual Kong Summit. Kong Summit 2020 was a success, and Kong Summit 2021 is poised to be even better.

This evolution reflects how the close-knit Kong community — Over a hundred thousand individual open source users and enterprise customers — is embracing Kong, its people and its vision. Join our community next month as we come together virtually for [Kong Summit 2021](/conferences/kong-summit)Kong Summit 2021.

Happy Birthday, Kong!