Plivo provides a cloud-hosted API platform for voice and SMS, built on FreeSWITCH to give businesses control over telephony hosting and quality of service. The company launched in December 2011 after its founders, Venkatesh B (Venky) and Michael Ricordeau, met on GitHub. It offers two service tiers: a pay-as-you-go option using Plivo's carriers and an enterprise tier that integrates customers' existing carrier relationships. At public launch Plivo handled 4 million minutes per month and had around a dozen customers (about half paying); enterprise customer counts are now "in the dozens." The platform has been growing about 30% month-over-month since going live in July, and Plivo characterizes its customers as enterprise-class. The company has 17 employees and plans to grow to 20 by year-end; it intends to expand beyond voice and messaging to support WebRTC (currently in alpha) and video in the future. Plivo provides a scalable API platform for voice and SMS applications, built on FreeSWITCH and running on dedicated servers to preserve call quality. The company targets larger businesses that need to offload and scale telephony infrastructure rather than the long-tail market. It offers two service tiers: pay-as-you-go using Plivo’s carriers (available in the U.S. and Canada) with volume rates, and a platform-only option for customers with their own carrier relationships (priced at a fixed 0.4 cents). Launched six months earlier in invite-only mode, Plivo now has a dozen customers, about half of which are paying, and handles 4 million minutes per month from those paying customers. One customer reportedly cut costs by 60% after switching to Plivo. The team consists of seven engineers across India and the U.S., and the company is hiring engineering, sales, and marketing staff.

Total raised

$2M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Seed

Latest activity

Dec 2012