IPaaS, short for integration platform-as-a-service, is a suite of cloud services that enable organizations to develop, execute, and govern integration flows between disparate apps. Under IPaaS, customers can drive the development and deployment of integrations without installing or managing any hardware or middleware.

The acceleration of digitization and the advantages of the IPaaS model — which include support for existing IT infrastructures and the breaking down of data silos — are driving an increasing number of companies to adopt IPaaS solutions. According to Grand View Research, the IPaaS services market will grow to $2.7 billion in value by 2025. IDG reports in a 2021 study that 27% of companies have already invested in IPaaS and that another 66% have plans to do so in the next 12 to 24 months.

One foremost IPaaS provider is SnapLogic, a San Mateo, California-based company launched in 2006 by Informatica ex-CEO Gaurav Dhillon. SnapLogic is differentiated by its high-profile customer base, which includes Adobe, Qualtrics, Schneider Electric, and Workday, as well as its large (and growing) tranche of venture capital. Today, the company announced that it raised $165 million at a $1 billion post-money valuation, bringing SnapLogic’s total raised to date to more than $371 million.

“Since the pandemic began, there has been a renewed focus on accelerating processes and workflows to help companies do more, in better and faster ways. Low-code, self-service technologies have been embraced because of their ability to empower business teams to procure, develop, integrate, and use new, purpose-built solutions quickly, without relying on an overtaxed IT team to accomplish their goals,” Dhillon told VentureBeat via email. “In addition … [t]here has been a surge of cloud and on-premise applications and data sources that all need to be connected to each other, in order for businesses to optimize their use.”

IPaaS at scale

SnapLogic’s platform consists of what the company calls an Integration Cloud, prebuilt connectors called Snaps, and a tool for data processing in the cloud or behind the firewall. The Integration Cloud features a designer for building integration workflows and a manager for controlling and monitoring the performance of SnapLogic orchestrations. Meanwhile, dashboards offer visibility into the health of integrations, including performance, reliability, and utilization.

SnapLogic’s data processing tool streams data between apps, databases, files, APIs, and social sources, while Snaps serve as modular collections of integration components built for specific apps. Snaps are available for analytics and big data in addition to identity management, social media, online storage, enterprise resource management, and databases. Snap Patterns, a relatively recent addition to the SnapLogic platform, extends Snaps to connect cloud services such as Amazon Redshift, Salesforce, Workday, and ServiceNow, both with each other and with on-premises apps and assets.

Dhillon asserts that SnapLogic was among the first in the IPaaS space to apply AI to integration. Instead of looking through heaps of assorted templates or recipes, SnapLogic customers can leverage AI-powered pattern recognition to reuse pipelines for other purposes.

“I cofounded SnapLogic on the premise that, in order to innovate, compete, and grow in a multicloud world, large enterprises needed a scalable, hybrid platform to integrate data and applications for improved decision-making and better business outcomes,” Dhillon said. “We enable application and data integration and workflow and process automation for IT and every line of business. Some specific use case examples are employee onboarding, people analytics, and employee offboarding; invoice processing [and] expense management; marketing campaign reporting and analytics, lead routing, and management; [and] application integration, data migration, data warehouse loading, data governance, and security.”

Growth and expansion

SnapLogic says it’s benefitted from the trends toward data integration and analytics at scale. The roughly 300-person company — whose platform is now processing 2.7 trillion customer documents per month and running 3.1 million pipelines per month per customer — expects to exit this year with record annual bookings and thousands of paying clients.

“The explosion of cloud and on-premises apps and data sources that all need to be connected. Complex, high-speed, high-volume data moving to the cloud at record rates,” Dhillon said. “The rise of low-code, self-service tech empowering business teams to procure, develop, integrate, and use new, purpose-built solutions quickly. This was all happening before the pandemic, but has since accelerated at a rapid clip, as enterprises rewire and retool to enable better speed, agility, innovation, and growth.”

The proceeds from the most recent funding round will be put toward international expansion, product innovation, mergers and acquisitions, and sales and marketing, as SnapLogic looks to beat back rivals such as Bridge Connector, Unito, Talend, Fivetran, and Celigo.

“On the product side, we’ll continue to build innovation and AI functionality into our platform,” Dhillon added. “In terms of go-to-market, our immediate focus will be on building out our Asia-Pacific presence, starting with additions to our team in Australia and New Zealand. We’re also scaling our global sales and marketing organizations to further drive awareness, interest, and adoption of SnapLogic.”