Low-code database APITable is one other Airtable challenger • TechCrunch

Airtable’s whopping $eleven billion valuation attained in late 2021 has lured a raft of formidable entrepreneurs into the low-code database house. They covet even solely a small slice of the pie loved by the final decade-previous American juggernaut. whereas SaaS has prolonged been a confirmed enterprise mannequin inside the U.S., in rising markets, and even in China’s burgeoning tech enterprise, many prospects nonetheless anticipate computer software to be free.

To develop their paying prospects, Asia’s SaaS startups, constructed by seasoned and pretty priced builders, are venturing into the West. Hong Kong-headquartered low-code database APITable is definitely one of them (it’s inside the tactic of constructing a Canadian base). the agency is unabashed about its ambition to sort out Airtable. working event, its weblog featured a step-by-step information on strategies to migrate from Airtable to its personal platform (the online page disappeared on the time of publishing).

APITable is competing with a handful of rising startups, like Amsterdam’s Baserow and San Francisco-primarily based NocoDB, to current an open-supply, seen decision for creating smart, smooth-trying databases. Its identify suggests a deal with system interoperability. finally, prospects shall be succesful to join the low-code gadget to platforms collectively with Zapier, Slack, Google Workspace and crimson-scorching ChatGPT using the APITable API, says the agency’s co-founder and COO Gary Li in an interview.

For prospects wanting an off-the-shelf product that requires minimal technical abilities and third-event internet hosting, the computer software comes with a paid, premium mannequin. As of in the present day, APITable has been “starred” some 6,500 occasions on GitHub, an indicator of a undertaking’s recognition amongst builders. whereas Li declines to disclose the agency’s income dimension, he claims that in 2022, “group prospects”, collectively with freemium and paid ones, grew from 6,000 to over 20,000 throughout 30 international places.

APITable’s founding staff first examined the water in China. Its chinese language mannequin Vika launched in 2019 at a time when enterprise capitalists, buoyed by the development of Zoom, Stripe, Canva, Figma, Airtable and completely different cloud-primarily based options inside the West, had been speeding to guess on native options.

APITable itself landed funding from excellent VCs like IDG Capital, GL Ventures (Hillhouse’s early-stage arm) and 5Y Capital, which is taken underneath consideration by some as a bellwether in enterprise tech funding in China. The startup had raised $10 million in whole funding as of early 2021 at a valuation of roughly $seventy five million.

again in China, Vika has had no scarcity of rivals. firms from giants like ByteDance and Tencent to underdogs like Hipacloud and Treelab clamored to assemble their options to Airtable. trying forward, the father or mother agency will place extra deal with enlargement inside the West by APITable. “Being open-supply is a method of promoting itself. To generate revenues, although, we nonetheless rely upon Saas gross sales,” reckons Li.

APITable’s CEO Kelly Chan seems to know a factor or two about creating devices for non-technical prospects. He was beforehand the CTO at HeyTea, a enterprise-backed agency that revolutionized the bubble tea enterprise in China. The chain not solely pioneered the novel cheese-on-the-extreme taste however extra importantly, it invested closely in a large developer staff, a pretty unusual transfer inside the meals and beverage enterprise. the outcomes had been reassuring. underneath Chan’s helm, HeyTea made an app to hurry up ordering and shorten wait time as properly as to increase recurring income by a membership scheme.

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