Hitch — not to be confused with the dating app of the same name — is a new product from the team behind API Changelog and plays in roughly the same space. It promises to offer Software-as-a-Service to help API owners manage and grow their API community, either internally or externally.
And to help launch Hitch, the London and Barcelona-based startup has picked up €700,000 in funding in a round led by Connect Venture. Seedcamp also participated, as did various unnamed angel investors.
“Through hundreds of conversations with API providers and developers, we realised there was a gap in the market for helping organisations better manage their relationships with their developer communities, above and beyond changelogs of APIs,” Hitch co-founder and CEO Luke Miller tells TechCrunch. “Hitch helps companies with existing or new API programs to better grow and engage these communities.”
The point that Miller makes is that nearly every tech company has an API strategy — that is, they have developed an Application Programming Interface to enable products, apps and services to be built on top of their core software and technology — but creating a good API alone isn’t enough.
“Building a platform entails not only delivering APIs, but creating and managing a vibrant community around them,” he says. “This is why Hitch exists: to enable API owners to build and nurture real API communities.” In other words, Build it and they will come doesn’t always apply.
“Recent companies that have built exceptional developer communities are Stripe, Twilio and Xero, taking on giant incumbents in major sectors. Their success is due to quality APIs, building and nurturing real developer communities which has enabled them to create truly global platforms,” adds Miller.
To that end, features offered by Hitch include the ability to store all your APIs/documentation in one place so that they are easily accessible by your team or externally, private and public API access, version control, and notifications so that all API developers and the wider community stay in the loop.