Hasura was founded by Tanmai Gopal and Rajoshi Ghosh after the founders identified a need to simplify backend API development.
Discover how Tanmai Gopal and Rajoshi Ghosh built Hasura from a food-delivery idea into a leading open-source GraphQL platform and $1 billion unicorn.
Written by TFN Research Desk | covering startups, technology, venture capital, and business strategy.
Quick Facts
| Tanmai Gopal | IIT Madras alumnus; full-stack developer; instructor of imad.tech, an MOOC with 250,000+ students |
| Rajoshi Ghosh | National University of Singapore alumna; Stanford GSB Ignite program; former bioinformatics researcher, Genome Institute of Singapore; World Economic Forum Global Shaper |
| Roles | Tanmai Gopal, Co-founder & CEO; Rajoshi Ghosh, Co-founder & COO |
| Founded | 2017 (GraphQL engine open-sourced July 2018) |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, USA (India-founded) |
Introduction
Tanmai Gopal and Rajoshi Ghosh didn’t set out to build a developer infrastructure company. They set out to build a food delivery app.
That early pivot became one of India’s most respected open-source success stories. Hasura now helps developers connect databases to applications through instant GraphQL APIs, and reached unicorn status in 2022 after crossing 400 million downloads. (TechCrunch)
The Hasura Story
Gopal, an IIT Madras graduate working as a consultant, met Ghosh through a common friend. Their first idea together was an online food delivery platform. (YourStory)
But building that first product surfaced a bigger problem. Every app they tried to build required the same repetitive, time-consuming backend work: connecting a database to an API, again and again. That shared frustration is what sparked Hasura. (Inspirepreneur Magazine)
The two set out to automate that backend layer entirely, letting developers generate instant GraphQL APIs from existing databases instead of building them by hand. Hasura’s GraphQL engine went open-source in July 2018, and adoption took off fast. (IIT Madras)
Growth That Speaks for Itself
Hasura’s early trajectory is a genuine open-source success story:
| Year | Downloads |
|---|---|
| Year 1 | 2 million |
| Year 2 | 100 million |
| By 2022 | 400 million+ |
The platform also earned over 25,000 GitHub stars, becoming, by Gopal’s account, the fastest-growing open-source GraphQL project of its time. (BusinessWire)
Business Model
Hasura acts as a connective layer between applications and data. Instead of developers writing custom backend code for every database connection, Hasura automates that work, handling pagination, filtering, joining, authorization rules, and performance optimization out of the box. (Forbes India) The company monetizes through Hasura Cloud, its managed enterprise offering built on top of the open-source engine.
Funding History
| Round | Date | Amount | Key Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seed | 2018-2019 | Undisclosed | Nexus Venture Partners |
| Series A | Feb 2020 | Undisclosed | Lightspeed Venture Partners |
| Series B | Sep 2020 | $25 million | Lightspeed, Nexus, Vertex Ventures |
| Series C | Feb 2022 | $100 million | Greenoaks (lead), Nexus, Lightspeed, Vertex, STRIVE |
(Entrackr)
The Series C round pushed Hasura’s total funding to $136.5 million and its valuation to $1 billion, making it one of the rare startups to reach unicorn status at the Series C stage itself. (BusinessToday) As of 2026, the company employs 126 people. (Tracxn)
Hasura vs Competitors
Hasura competes with Apollo GraphQL and PostGraphile in the API and GraphQL tooling space. Its edge has consistently been developer-first adoption: strong open-source traction that converts naturally into paid Hasura Cloud customers, a rare combination that impressed investors like Greenoaks even before they led its Series C.
Key Takeaways
- Tanmai Gopal and Rajoshi Ghosh pivoted from a food delivery app idea to found Hasura in 2017.
- Hasura’s open-source GraphQL engine grew from 2 million to 400 million+ downloads within a few years of its 2018 launch.
- The company raised $136.5 million across six rounds, reaching a $1 billion valuation in 2022.
- Hasura became a unicorn at the Series C stage, a rare milestone in the startup world.
- The company now employs 126 people, with roots in India and headquarters in San Francisco.
FAQs
Who founded Hasura?
Tanmai Gopal and Rajoshi Ghosh founded it in 2017, open-sourcing its GraphQL engine in 2018.
How much funding has Hasura raised?
$136.5 million across six rounds, reaching a $1 billion valuation in February 2022.
What does Hasura do?
It automates backend API development, letting developers generate instant GraphQL APIs from existing databases.
Who are Hasura’s competitors?
Apollo GraphQL and PostGraphile in the API and GraphQL tooling space.
© The Founder Nation | Written by TFN Research Desk
