Sendbird is a South Korean startup that provides a chat API. In 2021 the company raised $100 million in a Series C funding round at a $1.05 billion valuation. That valuation made Sendbird one of 12 unicorn startups based out of South Korea. The article places Sendbird in the context of 2021 being a breakthrough year for the Korean startup ecosystem despite the COVID-19 pandemic. The piece references South Korean government efforts to attract and support startups through programs such as the K-Startup Grand Challenge. SendBird offers a fully managed, white-label messaging API and SDKs (iOS, Android, JavaScript, React Native, .NET and Unity) that let developers add chat with minimal code. It supports tiered pricing by number of users and sells premium features such as chat moderation tools and automated translation. The product targets any app requiring real-time communication, including gaming, dating and on-demand services, and counts customers like the NBA, Yahoo! Sports and Glu Mobile. The service runs on almost 12,000 applications, is used by 50,000 developers and processes more than a billion messages per month. Headquartered in the San Francisco area, the company grew from 25 employees in 2017 to 74 today. SendBird plans to use new funding to expand capacity, increase marketing and build out sales and go-to-market efforts to grow market presence. SendBird offers a chat API and messaging SDK that developers integrate into mobile and web applications to power in-app chat. The platform serves over 6,500 applications across 153 countries and can support more than one million concurrent users for each application. Notable customers include GO-JEK, Nexon, TMON, SSG, Kookmin Bank (KB) and Healthline. The company was launched in 2015 in Korea and retains a Research & Development office and APAC branch in Seoul. SendBird has moved its headquarters to Silicon Valley (Redwood City, CA) while maintaining its global operations. The company recently raised new funding, supporting its continued product and market expansion.

Total raised

$168M

Funding rounds

3

Latest round

Series C

Latest activity

May 2021