MessageBird, the cloud communications platform, has announced a US$60 million Series A funding round led by Accel with participation from Atomico and existing investor Y Combinator. This investment round also marks the largest-ever Series A investment into a software company in Europe and by a Y Combinator portfolio company.
MessageBird is the only cloud communications platform with its own telecommunications carrier infrastructure. This proprietary technology allows global businesses to connect directly via SMS, voice, chat and video with greater security, speed, reliability and at lower costs than any other platform. According to MessageBird, the technology can reach 7 billion mobile phones spanning 146 countries on every continent.
MessageBird is also announcing the launch of its Voice API product and a roster of 15,000 international customers including Uber, SAP, and Huawei. With an existing product suite of text, chat and video, combined with direct relationships with over 220 carriers globally, the launch of Voice gives MessageBird the world’s largest cloud communications platform by direct customer reach.
With offices across in Sydney, Australia and Singapore as well as in the US and Europe, MessageBird is on track to reach a US$100 million revenue run rate this year. It will use the funding to accelerate hiring, invest further in its best-in-class customer support team, and evaluate acquisition opportunities in the US, Europe and Asia.
MessageBird founder and CEO Robert Vis said, “At MessageBird, our mission is to modernise and simplify cloud communications for global businesses. The capital investment needed today to enable global communications is considerably less than even five years ago. With API’s and software there is no need for expensive hardware and the cloud has enabled us to offer a low-latency network that complies with all local security and data retention laws. We’ve already built the world’s largest and most reliable text message API service for enterprises, now we are raising capital from the two leading investors in Silicon Valley and Europe to expand our voice infrastructure and sell our services into the enterprise market. We are positive we can save any business money while improving their experience with better global features, better quality of service and developers love our APIs.”
Accel Partner Miles Clements, who has just joined MessageBird's board of directors said, “Robert and his talented team are the prototypical bootstrappers we look for at Accel. Throughout the past six years of rapid and profitable growth, they have built their cloud-based infrastructure from the ground up, establishing direct relationships with over 220 carriers worldwide. The result of this direct carrier connectivity is a messaging and voice solution that ensures more reliable deliverability, at a lower cost than current alternatives. MessageBird is disrupting a trillion-dollar telecom industry which is only beginning its shift to the cloud.”
Atomico Partner Hiro Tamura, who is also new to MessageBird's board said, “The fastest and most direct route from Point A to Point B is a straight and unbroken line. To reach users in every country, legacy cloud communications providers route messages through complicated networks of indirect connections and third-party resellers. This creates arrival delays, security risks and sometimes messages and calls that simply never arrive which is a serious problem for global companies. Until MessageBird, no one in the space had successfully built the relationships and technology at scale to directly interface with telecommunications carriers around the world and consistently ensure the safest, most reliable and most cost effective delivery. Their explosive growth is proof of that.”
Y Combinator Partner Ali Rowghani said, "We’ve been delighted to support MessageBird since it joined Y Combinator's summer 2016 batch. While many companies have significant traction when they enter YC, MessageBird was one of the largest companies by revenue to ever complete the program. Robert and his team are well on their way to building a terrific business, and today’s investment round is a testament to their progress.”
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