Twilio acquires email API platform SendGrid

The acquisition comes following an all-stocks transaction worth approximately $2 billion, and the transaction is expected to close in early 2019.

The combination of the two platforms’ capabilities, which now manages over half a trillion customer interactions altogether (annualised as of the end of the quarterly period up to the 30th June 2018), will now include voice, video, SMS and email messaging.

The new partnership was announced via a conference call, which was recorded on a webcast.

CEO and co-founder of Twilio, Jeff Lawson, said: “Increasingly, our customers are asking us to solve all of their strategic communications challenges – regardless of channel.

“Email is a vital communications channel for companies around the world, and so it was important to us to include this capability in our platform.

“The two companies share the same vision, the same model, and the same values. We believe this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bring together the two leading developer-focused communications platforms to create the unquestioned platform of choice for all companies looking to transform their customer engagement.”

“Automation makes customer service more human.”

“How can businesses leverage automation to humanise the customer experience, and drive a customer-centric approach?”

Additionally, SendGrid CEO Sameer Dholakia described the acquisition as “a tremendous day for all SendGrid customers, employees and shareholders.”

“Our two companies have always shared a common goal – to create powerful communications experiences for businesses by enabling developers to easily embed communications into the software they are building.

“Our mission is to help our customers deliver communications that drive engagement and growth, and this combination will allow us to accelerate that mission for our customers.”

While Twilio was founded in San Francisco in 2008, Denver-based SendGrid was established in 2009 following graduation from the TechStars programme.

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Aaron Hurst

Aaron Hurst is Information Age's senior reporter, providing news and features around the hottest trends across the tech industry.