# M30 Financial Model

API aggregation platform ("next generation cloud") that lets developers discover, consume, and pay for 60+ public APIs through a single account and unified client framework.

- Canonical: https://finamodel.com/startups/m30
- Excel download: https://finamodel.com/startup-models/m30.xlsx
- Category: Marketplace
- Model type: SaaS ARR / Valuation
- Funding round: Seed
- Funding: $2M
- Founded: 2021
- Geography: Not in deck (website m3o.com; product appears global/English-language).
- Customer: B2B

## About the company

M30 is an API aggregation platform that lets developers discover, consume, and pay for public APIs through one account and unified client framework. Its marketplace simplifies documentation, billing, and access across more than 60 APIs.

The product uses a freemium, usage-led model: Pro costs $25 per month, Team costs $45 per user per month, and overages begin after included API-call limits. It had 6,500 signups and one million monthly API calls at the time of the deck.

The model is a PLG usage-SaaS build. Free signups, paid conversion, seats, API consumption, premium-service attach, and overage rates create MRR. Retention, usage expansion, infrastructure cost per request, and developer acquisition efficiency determine gross margin and the route to scale.

## What's included

- 5-year monthly revenue build with stage-appropriate growth assumptions
- Full P&L, headcount plan, and operating-expense schedule
- Cash-flow statement, runway, and burn-rate tracking
- Valuation via exit multiple with a DCF cross-check
- Returns analysis with MOIC and IRR
- Unit economics including CAC, LTV, payback, and cohort retention

## Product & value proposition

- Single platform to explore, discover, and consume public APIs.
- One consolidated billing account with consumption-based pricing.
- Unified client framework: one set of docs, client libraries, and examples.
- Built as a serverless cloud abstraction over public cloud infrastructure.
- Powered by open-source "Micro" framework (micro/micro on GitHub).
- Product screens show: API marketplace catalog, per-API docs/sandbox, and a billing dashboard showing balance ($28.43 visible in UI) and usage chart.

## Market

- Context provided via the problem slide: the "Third-Party API Economy" is fragmented across 30+ named vendors across Payments, Payroll, E-Commerce, Messaging, Health, Search, CMS, Insurtech, Security, Identity, Logistics, Forms, Verification, Data Mgmt, Video, Automation, Location categories.

## Revenue model

Three-layer model:

| Tier | Price | Included requests |
| -- | -- | -- |
| Solo (Free) | $0 | 1M requests/month |
| Pro | $25/month | 20M requests/month |
| Team | $45/mo per user | 100M requests/month |

- Pay-as-you-grow overage: $1 per million API calls after free tier.
- Premium paid services on top (SMS, email, geocoding, news, etc.) - priced per-call above the base tier.
- Future recurring subscriptions (Pro/Team/Business starting at $20/month mentioned as forward-looking).
- Channel: self-serve / PLG (developer-led, free-to-start). No enterprise/sales channel mentioned.

## Traction & metrics

From slide 5 (confirmed via image):
- 6,500 signups since launch
- 1 million API calls per month (current run-rate)
- 60 APIs on the platform
- 5 minutes to first API call (time-to-value)

From slide 5 chart image: Total API Requests line chart Jul–Feb; scale tops ~3.5M cumulative; curve inflects sharply Nov–Feb, reaching ~3.5M cumulative by Feb 1.

From slide 6 (Usage Data dashboard image):
- Signups chart (Jul–Feb): rises from ~0 to ~5,000 total, steeper inflection Oct–Nov.
- API Requests chart (Jul–Feb): multi-API stacked lines; top API (db) reaches ~1,500K cumulative by Feb; weather and cache also material.
- Users by API bar chart: top APIs by user count include db, weather, id, email, helloworld, currency - db is clearly #1, weather #2.

From slide 7 (Open Source):
- Underlying Micro framework: ~10,500 GitHub stars as of 2021 (chart reads ~10k+ by late 2021, from ~700 in 2017).
- Micro processes 1 billion requests per day.

No revenue figures disclosed.

## Unit economics

- No CAC, LTV, or payback figures in deck.
- Implied gross margin is high (API pass-through with serverless infra); no cost data disclosed.
- Overage pricing: $1/M calls above free tier. At 1M calls/month run-rate, current monetizable volume is near zero (all on free tier).

## Competition / moat

- Problem framing: no current aggregator with standardised consumption model exists.
- Moat stated: open-source Micro framework with 10k+ GitHub stars and 1B requests/day scale provides credibility and OSS developer distribution.
- No explicit competitive comparison slide.
- Case study: OpenBooking (CEO Louis Brauer) migrated from Twilio SMS → M3O SMS, Sendgrid/Postmark → M3O Email, AWS S3 → M3O Space, citing ease of use, single billing, reduced complexity.

## Team & funding ask / use of funds

**Team**:
- Asim Aslam - CEO; background in Micro (OSS)
- Dominic Wong - CTO; ex-Monzo
- Martin Virando - Dev UX; ex-Cisco

**Existing investors**:
- Blossom Capital
- Lightspeed Venture Partners
- Angels: Ross Mason, Luke Kanies, Spencer Kimball

**Ask**: Raising $5M

**Use of funds**:
- Accelerate growth and adoption
- Hire engineers and developer evangelists
- Build API integrations and client libraries

**Milestones post-raise**:
- Grow team to 10
- Catalog of 100 public APIs
- 100,000 users on the platform

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## Recommended financial model

- **Archetype + why**: Usage-based SaaS with freemium funnel. Revenue has two streams: (1) subscription MRR (Pro @ $25/mo, Team @ $45/user/mo) and (2) consumption overage ($1/M calls). Classic PLG funnel: free signups → paid conversion → expansion via seat/usage growth. 3-statement not warranted at this stage; a driver-based ARR/MRR model with unit-level cohort tracking is appropriate.

- **Forecast horizon & granularity**: Monthly, 36 months (3 years). Year 1 = actuals/near-term, Years 2–3 = projection.

- **Key drivers & assumptions**:
  - Monthly new signups: ~500–700/mo implied by 6,500 over ~10 months → model as growing 5–10% MoM post-raise as hiring/evangelism kicks in
  - Free-to-paid conversion rate: 3–5% of active users convert to Pro/Team (typical PLG benchmark); not in deck
  - Paid tier mix: 80% Pro, 20% Team (no data; Team requires collab which implies teams, less common at early stage)
  - Average team size (Team tier): 3 users/team
  - Monthly churn on paid: 3–5%/month (early-stage developer tools benchmark)
  - API calls per paid user/month: 5–20M (Pro includes 20M; most users likely sub-20M early)
  - Overage revenue: negligible in Year 1 (most usage on free/within-plan); models as % of paid cohort exceeding plan limits, starting ~10% by Year 2
  - Premium API attach rate (SMS, email, geocoding): 15% of paid users purchase at least one premium API service; average $10/mo
  - Gross margin: 70–80% (API pass-through costs are infra + third-party API costs; no data)
  - Headcount: starts at 3, grows to 10 post-raise; mostly engineering + 2 dev evangelists
  - Avg engineer salary: $120K/yr (UK/US blend given Monzo/Blossom pedigree)
  - Infra cost per million API calls: $0.10–0.20 (serverless cloud; needs sensitivity)

- **Scenarios (Base / Bull / Bear - which variables flex)**:
  - Base: 5% MoM signup growth, 3% free-to-paid conversion, 3% monthly churn
  - Bull: 10% MoM signup growth, 5% conversion, 2% churn - inflects to profitability in ~30 months
  - Bear: 3% MoM signup growth, 2% conversion, 6% churn - extends runway, requires bridge

- **Required sheets / outputs**:
  1. `Assumptions` - all drivers in one place, flagged vs
  2. `Funnel` - monthly signups → MAU → paid users (cohort-based)
  3. `Revenue` - MRR breakdown: Pro sub, Team sub, overage, premium APIs
  4. `P&L` - gross profit, opex (headcount, infra, S&M), EBITDA, net burn
  5. `Headcount` - role-by-role hiring plan tied to raise milestones
  6. `Cash` - cash balance, monthly burn, runway from $5M raise
  7. `Dashboard` - KPI summary: MRR, ARR, paid users, total signups, API call volume, burn, runway

## Frequently asked questions

### Is the M30 financial model free?

Yes. The M30 model is a free Excel download with live formulas.

### Can I change the assumptions?

Yes. The workbook is editable and its live formulas recalculate when assumptions change.