diff --git a/Gemfile b/Gemfile
index 4c931b7..a10dcf4 100644
--- a/Gemfile
+++ b/Gemfile
@@ -1,7 +1,5 @@
 source "http://rubygems.org"
 
-gem "json"
-
 group :development do
   gem "rspec"
   gem "bundler", "~> 1.0.0"
diff --git a/Gemfile.lock b/Gemfile.lock
index 775e332..9b1f54c 100644
--- a/Gemfile.lock
+++ b/Gemfile.lock
@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@ GEM
       bundler (~> 1.0)
       git (>= 1.2.5)
       rake
-    json (1.5.4)
     rake (0.9.2)
     rcov (0.9.10)
     rdoc (3.9.4)
@@ -26,7 +25,6 @@ PLATFORMS
 DEPENDENCIES
   bundler (~> 1.0.0)
   jeweler (~> 1.6.4)
-  json
   rcov
   rdoc
   rspec
diff --git a/lib/crunchbase/api.rb b/lib/crunchbase/api.rb
index 27736e2..5e07dac 100644
--- a/lib/crunchbase/api.rb
+++ b/lib/crunchbase/api.rb
@@ -1,5 +1,11 @@
 require 'net/http'
-require 'json'
+
+begin
+  require 'yajl'
+rescue LoadError
+  require 'json'
+end
+
 require 'timeout'
 
 module Crunchbase
@@ -40,11 +46,19 @@ def self.fetch(permalink, object_name)
       resp = Timeout::timeout(5) {
         Net::HTTP.get(uri)
       }
-      j = JSON.parse(resp)
+      j = parser.parse(resp)
       raise CrunchException, j["error"] if j["error"]
       return j
     end
     
+    def self.parser
+      if defined?(Yajl)
+        Yajl::Parser
+      else
+        JSON
+      end
+    end
+    
     
   end
 end