Twilio is a developer-centric communications platform. The company says it will use the new funding to accelerate its global expansion and expand its efforts to get into the enterprise. Twilio indicated it will likely use the capital to execute on strategic opportunities, citing its recent acquisition of Authy. The company added strategic investors Amazon.com and Salesforce Ventures alongside institutional backers. The article also notes that the company appears to be positioning for an IPO and remarks that it is likely worth more than $1 billion. In total, the article states Twilio has now raised $233.7 $240 million. Twilio offers APIs that let developers programmatically send SMS, make voice calls, and handle VoIP without dealing directly with carriers or gateways. The service simplifies integration to a few API calls and charges roughly 1¢ per text sent or received. The company has grown to just over 160 employees and recently moved into a larger office in a retrofitted paper/textile factory. Twilio closed a $70M Series D round, a raise the company says makes further near-term funding unlikely. Prior to this round the company had raised $33.5M in total, making the Series D more than twice the amount of previous funding. Management indicated an IPO would be the next logical step. Twilio provides cloud communications APIs that let developers add SMS, voice, and VoIP functionality to applications, including products like Twilio Client and Twilio Connect. The company plans an aggressive international expansion, rolling out services to about 20 more European countries and specifically targeting France, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy and most other major European nations. Funding will be used to build up the sales and marketing teams, expand product development, and hire more engineers. Twilio grew from 25 employees to nearly 100 in 2011 and increased its customer base by 400% to roughly 75,000 developers. Financially, the company has raised a total of $33.7 million to date following the new round. Leadership frames the long-term goal as disrupting legacy telecom hardware by moving communications into the cloud. Twilio is a San Francisco-based startup that provides developers an API to connect landline, VoIP and wireless phone calls, plus SMS, to web applications. The company monetizes via usage fees (1¢/min inbound, 2¢/min outbound, 3¢ per outbound SMS) and charges $1/month per dedicated number, while offering premium services like text-to-speech and call transcripts. Twilio raised $12M in its second round to hire additional engineers and continue marketing its services. The round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners and included investors such as 500 Startups (Dave McClure) and Union Square Ventures. The new financing brings Twilio’s total funding to $16M, following an earlier roughly $4M round about a year prior. Twilio reports about 20,000 developers building on its API and customers including Cheetos, Sony Music and Tumblr. Twilio offers a powerful telephony API that lets developers integrate common phone actions (placing calls, playing back recordings) with a small set of basic commands. Developers can build simple projects in only a few lines of code or create far more advanced applications. Early customers include Cheetos, Earth911, Tumblr, and Sony Music, and the service has gained traction in political advocacy. The company plans to use the new funding to grow sales and marketing and to further develop new products. Founded in 2007, Twilio has seen major customer growth and its offering and pricing have appealed to a range of organizations, including some Fortune 500 companies, despite competing enterprise solutions. Board additions tied to the round include Union Square Ventures’ Albert Wenger and Founders Fund’s Dave McClure.

Total raised

$233M

Funding rounds

5

Latest round

Series E

Latest activity

Jul 2015