Zapier was founded in 2011 by Wade Foster, Bryan Helmig, and Mike Knoop in Columbia, Missouri. The company has been fully remote since day one — long before remote work became mainstream — and has grown profitably without the massive venture capital rounds typical of Silicon Valley startups. Zapier has raised relatively modest funding (about $1.4 million in seed funding and a $140 million Series A in 2021) while building a business that serves millions of users.
The platform’s concept is straightforward: connect two or more apps and create automated workflows (called “Zaps”) using a simple trigger-action model. When something happens in one app (a trigger), Zapier automatically does something in another app (an action). For example: new email attachment → save to Google Drive → notify team in Slack.
Zapier integrates with over 7,000 apps, which is by far the largest integration library in the automation space. The company serves over 2.2 million businesses and processes billions of tasks per year. Users range from solo entrepreneurs automating their workflows to enterprises connecting complex multi-step processes across departments.
Beyond simple two-step Zaps, the platform now supports multi-step workflows with conditional logic (Paths), data formatting, delays, and custom code steps. Zapier has also launched Tables (a database product), Interfaces (for building forms and web pages), Canvas (an AI-powered workflow planning tool), and Chatbots. The company has consistently expanded while maintaining profitability, which is relatively rare in the SaaS world.
