# Kiva Software

**Canonical:** https://apis.io/providers/kiva-software/  
**APIs profiled:** 0

Kiva Software Corporation was a pioneer of the internet application server, founded in May 1994 by chairman and CEO Keng Lim and headquartered in Mountain View, California. In January 1996 Kiva shipped what is widely credited as the industry's first web application server, giving companies a platform for developing and deploying transaction-oriented business applications on the web — and the first Java application server to market, with C++ application development supported alongside it. The product line comprised the Kiva Enterprise Server (deployment and management runtime), the Kiva Application Builder (graphical development tool), and the Kiva SDK with Java and C++ foundation classes; the company also ran the Kiva Enterprise Alliance Program (KEAP) for end-to-end partner solutions. Customers included Bank of America, E-Trade, Travelocity, Internet Shopping Network, Hong Kong Telecom, and Pacific Bell Internet. Kiva raised roughly $13.9 million across two rounds from Weiss Peck & Greer, Greylock, Discovery Ventures, Sippl MacDonald Ventures, Norwest Venture Capital, and Trinity Ventures, and is listed in the Lightspeed Venture Partners portfolio as a 1996 early-stage investment. In December 1997 Netscape Communications acquired Kiva for approximately $180 million in stock (6.3 million Netscape shares), and the Kiva Enterprise Server became the Netscape Application Server — which went on to become the iPlanet Application Server under the AOL/Netscape–Sun Microsystems alliance, then Sun ONE Application Server and Sun Java System Application Server. Kiva has not operated independently since 1997, published no public developer API in the modern sense, and has no live web presence today (the historical www.kivasoft.com domain is now parked and listed for sale). This profile is retained as a historical Lightspeed and Trinity Ventures portfolio record — there is no active developer surface to enrich.

## Kin Score — 5.0 / 100 (minimal)

Scored 2026-08-20 under rubric 0.12.0. Trend: flat (+0.0 from 5.0).

| Facet | Score |
|---|---|
| Discoverability | 50.0 |
| Contract Quality | 0.0 |
| Governance | 0.0 |
| Contract Governance | 0.0 |
| Operational Transparency | 0.0 |
| Developer Ergonomics | 0.0 |
| Commercial Clarity | 0.0 |
| Access Clarity | 0.0 |

## Agent readiness — 0.0 (human-only)

| Dimension | Value |
|---|---|
| Spec Presence | no |
| Agentic Access | no |
| Reversibility Documented | no |
| MCP Server | no |
| Auth Clarity | no |
| Idempotency | no |
| Error Semantics | no |
| OpenAPI Examples | no |
| Rate Limit Signal | no |
| Event Surface Described | no |
| Agent Skills | no |
| Well Known Catalog | no |
| Consent Identity | no |
| Agent Card | no |
| Dry Run Mode | no |

## Access

Unknown — onboarding: unknown, pricing: unknown, trial: no (confidence: low).

## Tags

Company, Application Server, Java, Middleware, Web Applications, Enterprise Software, Developer Tools, Netscape, Acquired, Historical

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Profiled by [API Evangelist](https://apievangelist.com) and published on [APIs.io](https://apis.io/providers/kiva-software/). Scores are computed from the provider's own public artifacts under a published rubric.