Import.io Effectively Turns Websites into APIs and Data

Import.io is a web-based platform that allows extractions of data from websites without any code. With it, people can create an API using point and click interface.

To extract data from a website using Import.io, you will need a web crawler. A web crawler can extract data from many web pages. It does so by accessing the web pages and extracting the data you want for each one of them. This tutorial will show you how to create and run a Crawler in 7 simple steps.

Users navigate to a website and enable the app to extract data by selecting examples of data from the page. Collected data is kept on import.io’s cloud servers, from where it can be downloaded as Excel, Google Sheets, CSV or JSON and shared. Moreover, users can generate IPIs from the data enabling them to easily incorporate live web data into their applications or third party analyst. For more technical users, import.io provides real-time data retrieval via streaming APIs and JSON REST-based.

The company is solving an age-old problem.  These days, businesses rely on data but websites are hardly built to display that. Although Web scrapers” and other solutions are available, they’re not fit. Most businesses prefer using Import.io to turn websites into API.   Its customers include the likes of Chegg and Moz.

The company has offices in San Francisco and London. It was founded by Matthew Painter, Andrew Fogg, and David White. Import.io incorporated in 2012 and launched into Beta in 2013

Import.io has won many startup awards such as Best Startup by O’Reilly Strata Santa Clara, Web Summit, and GigaOM.

Since its establishment , the company has raised about $17.3M from its founder along with its Angel investors  Louis Monier (co-founder of AltaVista), Andy McLoughlin (co-founder of Huddle),  and David Axmark (co-founder of MySQL)  as well as  venture capital firms including Imperial Innovations, Wellington Partners, Jerry Yang’s (founder of Yahoo), Open Ocean Capital, Delin Capital, Oxford Capital, and Imperial Innovations.

Import.io is also making an ecosystem of data partners, with firms such as Tableau and Interworks, Blockspring, and Silk currently using Import.io’s Magic API.

Through an email, David Axmark, founder of MySQL and an investor in Import.io told me that: Import.io has developed an entirely new method of extracting, processing, and providing web data, solving an urgent need for data-driven businesses.”

All users begin with a free trial. The company doesn’t require a credit card until the users have determined that a paid Import.io plan is right for them. The free trial has all the features of Import.io’s Essential plan and runs for two weeks so that users can test it out to see how it works for them. At any time during the trial, users are allowed to buy a plan or downgrade their plan for free.

Advertisement