Investor Deck
Monetize the API economy. The infrastructure layer.
PayFence is the billing + access control layer for API providers. One integration. Stripe-native. Usage-based.
The Problem
APIs power trillions in economic value. Most can't charge for access.
Source: Kong / Brown University — 2023 API Impact Report
No billing infrastructure
Metered billing, API keys, and quota enforcement from scratch takes months. Stripe paid $1B for Metronome to solve this problem.
AI agents consume for free
Tool calls grew from <5% to 25%+ of all LLM requests in one year. Agents don't have seats. They have API calls.
Source: OpenRouter routing data, 2025
Rate limiting loses revenue
Blocking automated traffic caps usage instead of capturing value. Every blocked request is revenue left on the table.
The Solution
One layer. Full monetization.
Today
Free, no visibility, no billing
With PayFence
Metered, billed, same behavior
Zero disruption
Existing users keep working. Migrate at your own pace. No big-bang cutover.
Real-time enforcement
Every request validated, metered, and enforced. Proxy adds ~35ms. Middleware adds ~8ms.
Stripe-native billing
Revenue flows directly to the provider's Stripe account. No invoices, no manual payments.
Market Opportunity
Bottom-up market sizing.
We size the market by the economic flow of API revenue — not our fee layer. Every input is traceable to verified data.
TAM — Total Addressable
$1.9B
Global monetizable API revenue
9,350 API-first providers × $200K avg revenue
Conservative $765M · Aggressive $3.2B
SAM — Serviceable Addressable
$700M
Stripe-native, outsource-ready providers
75% Stripe × 50% outsource willingness
Conservative $287M · Aggressive $1.2B
SOM — 3-Year Target
$7M
350 customers × $200K avg × 9.99% fee
9.99% platform fee on revenue processed
Conservative $2.4M · Aggressive $15M ARR
How we built these numbers
17,000
US SaaS companies
22%
expose paid APIs
0.40
US share of global
9,350
global providers
$200K
avg API revenue
$1.87B
TAM
Sources: SaaS Capital, Postman 2025, RapidAPI, Bannerbear. Excludes hobby APIs and micro-products <$50K ARR. Full methodology in appendix.
$1B
Stripe paid for Metronome
December 2025
65%
Of orgs generate revenue from APIs
Postman 2025
$100M+
Billing → analytics, compliance, agent identity
Platform expansion path
Why Now
AI agents are the new API consumers.
97M+
Monthly MCP SDK downloads
From 100K to 8M in 5 months
Anthropic / MCP Manager, Dec 2025
25%+
Of LLM requests are tool calls
Was <5% one year ago
OpenRouter routing data, 2025
$1B
Stripe paid for Metronome
Metered billing for the AI era
December 2025
40%
Of enterprise apps will use AI agents
By end of 2026 (up from <5%)
Gartner, 2025
“Metered pricing is the native business model for the AI era.”
— Patrick Collison, CEO of Stripe
MCP donated to Linux Foundation — co-founded by Anthropic, Block, OpenAI with support from Google, Microsoft, AWS, Cloudflare
Seat-based pricing declining — dropped from 21% to 15% share in 12 months. Hybrid (base + usage) surged from 27% to 41%
Kyle Poyar / Growth Unhinged 2025
Competitive Landscape
Purpose-built for API monetization.
| MarketplacesRapidAPI, Zyla | Gateways / DIYKong, Apigee | Usage BillingMetronome, Orb, Lago | PayFence | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | 75–85% kept | 100% kept | 100% kept | 100% kept |
| Setup time | Days (their portal) | Weeks–months | Weeks | Minutes |
| Access + billing | Marketplace only | Gateway only | Billing only | Both, integrated |
| Stripe-native | No | No | Partial | Yes — Connect |
| API-specific | Yes | Yes | No (general) | Yes — purpose-built |
Market validation — competitor funding & exits
RapidAPI
$272M raised · Acquired by Nokia (2024)
Kong
$345M raised · $2B valuation (2024)
Metronome
$128M raised · Acquired by Stripe for ~$1B (2025)
Orb
$44M raised · 5x ARR growth (2024)
Lago
$22M raised · Open-source billing
Moesif
$15.5M raised · Acquired by WSO2 (2025)
Three acquisitions in just over a year. The market is consolidating — and none of these combine access control + billing at the API gateway layer.
Traction
Production ready. Live infrastructure.
Live product
app.payfence.io — reverse proxy + middleware modes, real-time quota enforcement, usage analytics dashboard
3 demo APIs + AI agent
WeatherStack, SkyRoute, CartBay deployed on AWS App Runner. AgentKit AI agent demo showcases automated API consumption
SDKs published
Python (PyPI) and Node.js (npm) middleware SDKs for server-side integration
Stripe Connect integration
End-to-end billing works — subscriptions, metered usage, payouts to provider Stripe accounts
Full demo + marketing infrastructure
Marketing site, investor deck, interactive demo walkthrough, 6 demo accounts with full data parity
AWS Infrastructure
Lambda, CloudFront, DynamoDB, App Runner
<35ms p50 Latency
Fail-open architecture — API stays accessible
Dual Integration
Reverse proxy or middleware SDK — provider's choice
Team
Built by a builder. Scaling with intent.
Sanat Dhir
Founder & CEO
Columbia MBA · Ex-EvolutionIQ (AI insurtech) · Acorns · JPMorgan Chase · Citi
AWS Solutions Architect – Professional · PMP · PMI-ACP
LinkedIn ProfileThe solo founder advantage
36%
Of new startups are solo-founded (up from 17% in 2015)
Carta 2025
52%
Of successful startup exits were solo-founded
TechCrunch / Crunchbase
Solo founders raise their first priced round sooner than co-founded companies in every cohort from 2018–2024.
Carta 2025
Hiring plan
Month 0–1
Sr Engineer (FT) + DevOps (FT/0.75) — full-time, not contractors
Month 2–3
DevRel / Growth Engineer
Ongoing
Co-founder search (parallel, not blocking)
Post-seed
Scale based on what’s working
SOC 2 compliance roadmap in place
Gap analysis complete — 11/16 controls passing. Audit triggered by first enterprise customer.
Go-to-Market
Developer-led growth. Capital-efficient.
Stripe App Marketplace
Time (2–4 months to build)· Live by day 90Distribution to Stripe’s existing Connect merchant base. Every user wanting usage-based billing is a prospect.
Founder outbound to API providers
$50–200/mo tools· 4–8 weeks to first meetingCold email to API providers with live product. CTO-targeted campaigns with demo link.
Design partner program
Free/discounted· Days 0–603–5 free/discounted onboardings. Validate ICP, prove time-to-integration, earn case studies.
Technical content
$0–500/mo· 4–6 months early signalsIntegration guides, API monetization tutorials, comparison pages. Compounds over time.
Developer communities
Free· OngoingHacker News, Reddit, IndieHackers, Dev.to. Amplify learnings, don’t lead with ads.
3.5–7.1%
Visitor-to-trial (dev tools)
Highest of any B2B SaaS
2–5%
Freemium-to-paid (high velocity)
8–15% at high ROI
<10 min
Time-to-activation target
Conversion drops with each minute of friction
Financial Model
Unit economics that work. From day one.
9.99% platform fee on API revenue processed via Stripe Connect. Revenue flows directly to the provider's Stripe account.
| Conservative | Base Case | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly rev / customer | $500 | $1,000 |
| Avg lifetime | 18 months | 24 months |
| LTV | $9,000 | $24,000 |
| CAC | $1,500–$2,500 | $800–$1,500 |
| LTV:CAC | 4:1 | 16:1 |
| Gross margin | 75% | 82% |
Revenue projections
Burn analysis
Velocity mode — 12 months to seed-ready metrics
The Ask
$750K pre-seed. 12 months to seed-ready metrics.
Post-money SAFE at $10M cap. Median pre-seed cap for $500K–$1M rounds — Carta Q3 2025
Sr Engineer (FT)
Full-time, not contractor
DevOps (FT/0.75)
Reliability = product
Founder salary
$10K/mo × 12 months
DevRel + GTM
Hire month 2–3 + content/events budget
Buffer
~2 months emergency runway
Infrastructure
AWS, Stripe, tools
Legal / Compliance
IP, SOC 2 prep
Days 0–60
3 design partners
Free/discounted onboardings. Validate ICP, prove time-to-integration.
Days 0–90
Stripe Marketplace live
#1 distribution channel. Every Connect user wanting usage-based billing is a prospect.
Month 4–6
First paying customer
Time-to-integration < 48 hours. Case study published.
Month 10–12
Seed-ready metrics
$10–15K MRR. Ready for seed round ($3–5M at $15–20M cap).
This window closes in 12–18 months.
AI agents are creating API billing demand now — before Stripe/Metronome, Orb, and incumbents close the gap. First-mover advantage is perishable.
Appendix
Market sizing methodology.
Category: API-First Monetization Infrastructure. Bottom-up sizing from verified inputs. Every assumption shown as a range.
| Input | Conservative | Base | Aggressive | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US SaaS companies | 17,000 | SaaS Capital 2025 | ||
| % exposing external paid APIs | 15% | 22% | 25% | Postman 2025, RapidAPI |
| US API-exposing SaaS | 2,550 | 3,740 | 4,250 | Derived |
| US share of global SaaS | ~40% | Statista, Gartner | ||
| Global API-first providers | 6,375 | 9,350 | 10,625 | Derived |
| Avg API revenue per provider | $120K | $200K | $300K | SaaS Capital, Bannerbear |
| Stripe penetration | 70% | 75% | 80% | Stripe Newsroom (80% Cloud 100) |
| Outsource willingness | 40% | 50% | 60% | Estimated (SMBs buy, enterprises build) |
Note: Excludes hobby APIs and micro-products under $50K ARR. Conservative count of ~6,400–10,600 providers today; excludes emerging AI-native API companies which could expand the addressable base 2–3x by 2028.
Sensitivity Analysis
| Scenario | TAM (Revenue Flow) | SAM (Filtered) | 3-Year SOM |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | $765M | ~$287M | $2.4M ARR |
| Base case | $1.87B | ~$701M | $7M ARR |
| Aggressive | $3.19B | ~$1.2B | $15M ARR |
TAM represents total API revenue flowing through monetizable APIs. PayFence captures 9.99% of revenue processed as platform fee. SOM assumes 200–500 customers in 3 years via PLG + direct outreach.
Platform expansion — path to $100M+ ARR
The billing layer is the wedge. Revenue expands per customer as the platform grows.
Usage analytics
Already have the data — zero marginal cost. API consumption intelligence for providers.
Fraud & compliance
Abuse detection, rate anomaly flagging, SOC 2 audit trails. Natural extension of the gateway layer.
Agent identity
AI agents need identity + credit scoring to consume APIs autonomously. No one else is building this.
Increasing ARPU from ~$20K to $80K per customer across 1,500 customers = $120M ARR. The billing wedge gets you in the door.
Key sources
• SaaS Capital — 2025 Annual SaaS Survey
• Postman — 2025 State of the API Report
• RapidAPI — 2024 State of APIs Report
• Stripe Newsroom — Cloud 100, AI 50 data
• Bannerbear, APILayer, imgix — API revenue benchmarks
• Gartner — $3.3B tracked API mgmt vendor revenue (2023)
• Carta — Q3 2025 pre-seed valuation data
• Kyle Poyar / Growth Unhinged — 2025 pricing benchmarks
• Kong / Brown University — 2023 API Impact Report
• Anthropic / MCP Manager — MCP SDK download data