Description
Zapier
What is Zapier?
Zapier is the world's leading no-code automation platform that connects over 8,000 web applications to automate workflows without any programming required. Founded in 2011 in Columbia, Missouri by Wade Foster, Bryan Helmig, and Mike Knoop, Zapier has become the industry standard for app integration and repetitive task automation.
With over 3 million users and more than 100,000 paying customers, Zapier has demonstrated extraordinary growth reaching a valuation of $5 billion while only raising $1.4 million in venture capital - one of the most impressive examples of capital efficiency in software history.
In 2024-2025, Zapier has evolved into an AI orchestration platform, integrating capabilities for autonomous AI agents, intelligent chatbots, and AI-powered building assistants that enable creating automations using natural language.
Company and History
| Data | Information |
|---|---|
| Company | Zapier, Inc. |
| Founded | 2011 |
| Origin | Columbia, Missouri, USA |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, CA (100% remote) |
| Founders | Wade Foster, Bryan Helmig, Mike Knoop |
| CEO | Wade Foster (Co-Founder & CEO) |
| CTO | Bryan Helmig (Co-Founder) |
| CPO | Mike Knoop (Co-Founder) |
| Valuation | $5 billion (2021) |
| 2024 Revenue | $310 million |
| 2025 Revenue (projected) | $400 million |
| Paying Customers | 100,000+ |
| Total Users | 3+ million |
| Employees | ~1,200 across 40+ countries |
Founding Story:
Zapier's story began at the first Startup Weekend in Columbia, Missouri in October 2011. Wade Foster was working at VAMortgageCenter.com doing email marketing automation when his colleague Bryan Helmig had the idea to create an "API Mixer" - a tool to connect different web applications.
Wade and Bryan recruited their friend Mike Knoop to build an initial prototype. The project won first place in the competition and the founders began treating it as more than just a side project. They worked nights and weekends while keeping their day jobs.
Timeline:
- Oct 2011: Initial prototype at Startup Weekend Columbia
- Jan 2012: Wade quits his job to go full-time
- May 2012: Accepted into Y Combinator (Summer 2012)
- Oct 2012: $1.3M seed round (Bessemer Venture Partners)
- 2014: Reaches profitability (never depended on investment again)
- 2017: Offers $10K "de-location package" for employees
- 2019: Reaches $50M ARR
- 2020: Reaches $100M ARR, launches $1M SMB fund during COVID
- Mar 2021: Reaches $140M ARR, acquires Makerpad
- 2021: $5B valuation (secondary sale with Sequoia Capital)
- 2022: Reaches ~$200M ARR
- 2023: Reaches $250.7M in revenue
- 2024: Reaches $310M in revenue, launches Enterprise plan
- 2025: Launches AI orchestration platform, Zapier Agents
Funding (single round):
- Seed (Oct 2012): $1.3M - Bessemer Venture Partners, Y Combinator, Sequoia Capital
Zapier's capital efficiency story is legendary:
- Only $1.4M in total venture capital
- ARR/Funding ratio of 100x ($140M ARR with $1.4M)
- Comparable to Atlassian (128x) and Cloudinary (80x)
- Profitable since 2014
- Never burn rate higher than $20K/month
Remote-First Culture:
- 100% remote since founding
- Employees in 40+ countries
- No physical main office
- In 2017 offered $10K to employees to move AWAY from Bay Area
Zapier Platform
Zaps (Core Product)
"Zaps" are automated workflows that connect apps:
- Trigger: Event that starts the workflow
- Action(s): Actions that execute automatically
- Multi-step Zaps: Multiple chained actions
- Filters and Paths: Conditional logic
- Formatters: Data transformation
Zapier Agents (2024-2025)
Autonomous AI agents that can:
- Process leads and manage CRM
- Handle support tickets
- Perform web research
- Execute complex multi-step workflows
- Use tools and make decisions
Agent Features:
- Agent Pods: Group related agents
- Activity Dashboard: Activity monitoring
- Human-in-the-loop: Slack approvals
- Autonomy with oversight
Zapier Copilot
AI assistant for building automations:
- Create Zaps with natural language
- Smart field suggestions
- Automatic troubleshooting
- Works across the entire platform
Zapier Chatbots
Custom AI chatbots:
- Training with web pages and documents
- Knowledge base integration
- Lead capture
- Automatic scheduling
- Contextual responses
Canvas
Visual tool for:
- Diagramming complex systems
- Planning automations
- Team collaboration
- Visual documentation
Tables
Integrated no-code database:
- Code-free data storage
- Automatic triggers
- Native Zap integration
- Custom interfaces
Interfaces
No-code app builder:
- Custom forms
- Dashboards
- Customer portals
- Internal apps
MCP (Model Context Protocol)
Integration with external AI platforms:
- Connection with Cursor, Claude, etc.
- Access to 8,000 apps from any LLM
- Robust authentication
- Action execution via AI chat
AI by Zapier
AI steps within Zaps:
- Image, audio, and video analysis
- Content generation
- Summarization
- Intelligent classification
- Integration with OpenAI, Claude, etc.
Integrations
App Statistics
- 8,000+ integrated apps
- 300+ AI-specific apps
- Categories: CRM, Marketing, Sales, Support, Productivity
- Main partners: Salesforce, Google, Microsoft, Slack, HubSpot
Most Popular Apps
- Google Sheets, Gmail, Google Calendar
- Slack, Microsoft Teams
- Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive
- Notion, Airtable, Trello, Asana
- Stripe, QuickBooks, Xero
- Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign
- Shopify, WooCommerce
- ChatGPT, Claude, OpenAI
Connected AI Apps
- OpenAI (ChatGPT, DALL-E, Whisper)
- Anthropic Claude
- Google Gemini
- Perplexity AI
- Replicate
- Stability AI
- ElevenLabs
- Midjourney
Use Cases
By Function
- Marketing: Lead nurturing, social media, email automation
- Sales: CRM sync, lead routing, automatic follow-ups
- Support: Ticket management, automatic responses
- Operations: Data sync, reporting, notifications
- Finance: Invoice processing, reconciliation
- HR: Onboarding, time tracking, applicant tracking
By Industry
- E-commerce: Order processing, inventory, shipping
- SaaS: User onboarding, churn prevention
- Agencies: Client reporting, project management
- Real Estate: Lead management, showing scheduling
- Healthcare: Appointment reminders, patient intake
- Education: Student onboarding, grade tracking
Automation Examples
- New lead → Add to CRM → Send email → Notify in Slack
- New order → Update inventory → Create invoice → Send confirmation
- New email → Classify with AI → Respond or escalate
- Meeting scheduled → Research prospect with AI → Create brief
Pricing and Plans
Free Plan
- Price: $0/month
- Tasks: 100/month
- Zaps: Unlimited (2-step only)
- Polling: 15 minutes
- Users: 1
- AI Power-ups: Included
Professional Plan
- Price: $29.99/month (monthly) / $19.99/month (annual)
- Tasks: Starting at 750/month
- Zaps: Unlimited multi-step
- Polling: 2 minutes
- Premium Apps: Included
- Webhooks: Included
- Filters, Paths, Formatters: Included
Team Plan
- Price: $103.50/month (monthly) / $69/month (annual)
- Tasks: Starting at 2,000/month
- Users: Up to 25
- Polling: 1 minute
- Shared Workspaces: Included
- SAML SSO: Included
- Premier Support: Included
Enterprise Plan
- Price: Custom
- Tasks: Custom annual volume
- Users: Unlimited
- Admin Permissions: Advanced
- Data Retention: Custom
- Technical Account Manager: Included
- Observability Tools: Included
Add-ons
- Tables: Starting at $20/month
- Interfaces: Starting at $20/month
- Chatbots: Starting at $20/month
- Agents: Included with plans (limited activities)
Pricing by Tasks
Cost scales significantly with volume:
- 750 tasks: ~$20/month
- 2,000 tasks: ~$69/month
- 100,000 tasks: ~$599/month
- 2M tasks: ~$5,999/month
Business Metrics
Financial
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2024 Revenue | $310M |
| 2025 Revenue (proj) | $400M |
| Valuation | $5B (2021) |
| Total Funding | $1.4M |
| ARR/Funding Ratio | 100x |
| Profitable since | 2014 |
Growth
| Year | Revenue |
|---|---|
| 2017 | $14.4M |
| 2019 | $50M |
| 2020 | $100M |
| 2021 | $140-150M |
| 2022 | $198.8M |
| 2023 | $250.7M |
| 2024 | $310M |
| 2025 | $400M (proj) |
Users and Tasks
- 3+ million total users
- 100,000+ paying customers
- 81+ billion tasks executed historically
- 760% growth in AI tasks (last 2 years)
- 200+ million AI tasks processed
Unit Economics
- ARPU: ~$41.70 (doubled from $20)
- Customer LTV: ~$883 (from $400)
- Average Contract Value: ~$500
- Net Revenue Retention: High (not public)
Security and Compliance
Certifications
- SOC 2 Type II
- GDPR Compliant
- CCPA Compliant
- HIPAA (Enterprise)
Security Features
- Encryption in transit and at rest
- SSO/SAML (Team+)
- SCIM provisioning (Enterprise)
- Audit logs
- Custom data retention
- Role-based access control
Competition
| Competitor | Zapier Differentiator |
|---|---|
| Make (Integromat) | Zapier more apps (8K vs 1K), easier |
| Microsoft Power Automate | Zapier ecosystem-independent |
| IFTTT | Zapier more enterprise, more robust |
| Workato | Zapier more accessible, better UX |
| n8n | Zapier more integrations, less technical |
| Tray.io | Zapier more affordable for SMBs |
Market Share:
- ~7% of integrations/iPaaS market
- 25x more paying customers than Integromat (2020)
- Leader in SMB and prosumer segment
Target Audience
Ideal Users
- Solopreneurs and freelancers
- Startups and small businesses
- Marketing and growth teams
- Operations teams
- Non-technical "makers"
- Business analysts
By Company Size
- Individual: Free/Professional for personal productivity
- SMB: Professional/Team for process automation
- Mid-market: Team for collaboration
- Enterprise: Enterprise for governance and scale
Customer Profile
- 75% of revenue from companies with $100K+ spend
- Fortune 1000: almost all use Zapier
- 3.4 million companies trust Zapier
- 25% revenue from teams with $599+/month subscriptions
Acquisitions
Makerpad (March 2021)
- No-code education platform
- Maker community
- Estimated price: 7 figures ($M)
- Objective: Expand educational ecosystem
Technical Information
| Specification | Detail |
|---|---|
| Type | SaaS, Web-based |
| Mobile Apps | No (web only) |
| API | REST API available |
| Webhooks | Yes (Professional+) |
| Code Steps | Python, JavaScript |
| Deployment | Cloud only |
| Uptime | 99.9%+ |
Developer Platform
- Create custom integrations
- Public API
- CLI tools
- Embed in SaaS products
Recognition and Awards
- Y Combinator Alumni (S12, Growth S18)
- Forbes Cloud 100
- Deloitte Fast 500
- Inc. 5000
- Best Remote Company to Work For
Key Features
Connects over 8,000 web apps without code
Multi-step Zaps with conditional logic (Filters, Paths)
Zapier Agents - autonomous AI agents
Zapier Copilot for natural language automation creation
Custom chatbots with knowledge base training
Canvas for diagramming and planning complex systems
Tables - integrated no-code database
Interfaces - no-code app builder
AI by Zapier for AI steps in workflows
MCP for connecting with Claude, Cursor and other LLMs
Webhooks and real-time triggers
Code steps with Python and JavaScript
Formatters for data transformation
Native integration with OpenAI, Claude, Gemini
Human-in-the-loop with Slack approvals
Activity dashboard for agent monitoring
SAML SSO and SCIM provisioning (Enterprise)
Public API and Developer Platform
Pre-built templates for common use cases
100% remote company with 24/7 support
Use Cases
Automatic lead sync between CRM and email
Lead nurturing with personalized emails
Automatic social media posting
E-commerce order processing
Automatic support ticket management
New employee onboarding
Data sync between spreadsheets
Automatic notifications in Slack/Teams
Automatic file backup to cloud
Report and dashboard generation
Invoicing and payment automation
Time and productivity tracking
AI-powered email classification
Automatic prospect research
Multi-channel inventory management
Automatic meeting scheduling
Lead capture from forms
Cross-platform record updates
Automatic alerts for critical events
Enterprise approval workflows
Information
Company
Zapier, Inc.
Website
zapier.comUser Reviews
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