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Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Postman announced on January 8, 2026, that it had acquired Fern, a company that builds API documentation and SDK-generation tools. The deal extends Postman’s API platform toward the materials developers use to understand and integrate APIs. Postman said Fern’s product, brand and roadmap would remain unchanged at the time of the announcement; that was a statement of intent then, not a guarantee about every future decision.
What Postman acquired
Fern makes software for publishing developer-facing API documentation and generating software development kits (SDKs). Documentation helps people understand an API’s endpoints, requirements and examples; an SDK provides code libraries that developers can use to call that API from an application.
Fern’s founders said they started the company in 2022 because producing and maintaining good documentation and SDKs can be expensive, particularly for companies without dedicated developer-experience teams. In its acquisition announcement, Fern said its products were open source and that its SDK Generator supported nine major programming languages. Fern named Square, Auth0, Adobe, Twilio and ElevenLabs as companies using its products; those examples are not endorsements or evidence of which specific Fern products they used.
Why Postman says it bought Fern
Postman’s stated rationale was to make APIs easier to understand and integrate by bringing documentation and SDKs closer to the API creation and collaboration work associated with its platform. The idea is that clearer reference material and ready-to-use client libraries can reduce the effort required for developers to adopt an API.
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That is the strategic aim, not a measured result of the acquisition. The companies have not published an independent measure showing that the deal reduced integration time, increased adoption or improved customer satisfaction.
How Fern fits into an API workflow
Postman describes Fern Docs as a docs-as-code platform that can generate a documentation site from a Postman Collection. According to its product documentation, a site can include an automatically generated API reference, guides, tutorials, sample code and an interactive API explorer, along with branding options. The published site is backed by a GitHub repository owned by the customer’s team.
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In practical terms, the connected workflow is: create and test API assets, then use them to publish developer-facing references and guides. Documentation explains how an API works to a person; generated SDKs give developers client libraries for interacting with it from code. Fern’s own announcement presented documentation and SDKs as related outputs for API adoption, rather than as substitutes for API design or testing.
Fern described an OpenAPI-based workflow in a May 20, 2026 post: the fern generate CLI takes OpenAPI input to produce documentation and SDKs. Postman’s product documentation also describes generating documentation from Postman Collections. These are documented workflows; they do not establish a neutral comparison with competing tools or a head-to-head assessment of generated-code quality.
What Postman and Fern reported about the deal
Postman’s January 8, 2026 announcement said Fern had grown to 25 team members since launching in 2022 and had more than 200 customers. Fern’s own announcement also reported that 200-plus companies trusted it. These are company-reported figures from the deal announcements, not independently audited totals.
Postman said its platform reached more than 500,000 companies worldwide and 98% of the Fortune 500. Those figures describe Postman’s reported reach, not Fern’s customer base or a count of companies that adopted Fern after the acquisition.
Will Fern change after the acquisition?
At announcement, Postman said the whole Fern team would join it and that Fern’s product, brand and roadmap would stay the same, with existing customers seeing no changes at that time. That assurance should be read in its January 2026 context rather than as a binding promise about every future product decision.
Subsequent public statements show Fern remained part of Postman’s positioning. In a May 20, 2026 Fern post, Postman co-founder and CEO Abhinav Asthana called Fern a “long-term investment” and said Postman acquired the product and team because “high-quality SDKs and CLIs are foundational to the future of APIs and agent platforms.” In an August 18, 2026 post, Postman described Fern as covering agent and developer experience through docs, SDKs and CLIs, and said, “Fern is how we publish our documentation.” These statements show continued strategic use, but do not specify an integration schedule or quantify outcomes for customers.
How the deal fits Postman’s broader direction
Postman had announced the acquisition of SDK-generation company liblab in November 2025. That earlier deal is context for Postman’s interest in API lifecycle capabilities, but it is separate from the Fern acquisition. Postman said liblab customers could continue using that platform while it communicated integration plans; the announcement does not establish that Fern and liblab were merged.
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What the acquisition does not establish
- The companies have not disclosed the purchase price or deal structure in the cited announcements.
- The available company statements do not demonstrate that the acquisition has already reduced developer friction or improved adoption.
- Postman and Fern’s reported customer and reach figures are company claims, not a neutral comparison of product quality or market share.
- The product materials describe Fern’s documented workflows and capabilities, but do not establish that Fern is better than another documentation or SDK tool.
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