SendGrid
TypeSubsidiary
IndustryTechnology
Founded2009
FounderIsaac Saldana, Jose Lopez, Tim Jenkins
Headquarters
Denver, Colorado
,
United States
Key people
Sameer Dholakia (CEO)[1]
Revenue$111.9 million (2017)[2]
ParentTwilio
Websitesendgrid.com

SendGrid (also known as Twilio SendGrid) is a Denver, Colorado-based customer communication platform for transactional and marketing email.[3][4][5][6][7][8] The company was founded by Isaac Saldana, Jose Lopez, and Tim Jenkins in 2009, and incubated through the Techstars accelerator program.[9][10][11][12] As of 2017, SendGrid has raised over $81 million and has offices in Denver, Colorado; Boulder, Colorado; Irvine, California; Redwood City, California; and London.[8][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]

The company went public with a debut in the New York Stock Exchange on November 16, 2017.[19] Twilio acquired SendGrid in February 2019.

General

SendGrid provides a cloud-based service that assists businesses with email delivery.[7][9][20][21] The service manages various types of email including shipping notifications, friend requests, sign-up confirmations, and email newsletters. It also handles Internet service provider (ISP) monitoring, domain keys, the sender policy framework (SPF), and feedback loops.[13][22][23][24] Additionally, the company provides link tracking and open rate reporting.[22] It also allows companies to track email opens, unsubscribes, bounces, and spam reports.[7][22][25] Beginning in 2012, the company integrated SMS, voice, and push notification abilities into its service through a partnership with Twilio.[15]

SendGrid offers a freemium version and a Lite Plan (pay-as-you-go), as well as three expanded levels of service: Essentials, Pro, and Premier.[7][26][27]

SendGrid's clients include Uber, Twilio, Foursquare, Pandora, and Airbnb.[13][21][24][28]

Controversy

The controversial firing of Adria Richards in March 2013 and the surrounding circumstances became known as Donglegate.[29][30][31][32][33]

Funding

Before SendGrid was called Twilio SendGrid, they named the project smtpapi.com.[34] After founding SendGrid in Riverside, California, in July 2009, Saldana, Lopez, and Jenkins enrolled the startup in the TechStars accelerator program and moved the company to Boulder, Colorado.[9][11][35][36][37] By December 2009, the company announced it had raised $750,000 in a funding round led by Highway 12 Ventures.[22] Other participating investors included SoftTech VC, FF Angel, and TechStars founder David Cohen.[22]

In April 2010, the email software-as-a-service (SaaS) company received $5 million in Series A round funding from Foundry Group, SoftTech VC, and Highway 12 Ventures, as well as individual investors including David Cohen, Scott Petry, Dave McClure, and Matt Mullenweg.[25][38] Ryan McIntyre, the co-founder of Foundry, joined SendGrid's board of directors at this time as well.[25]

In January 2012, SendGrid raised $21 million in Series B funding.[39] The funding round – led by Bessemer Venture Partners and previous investors Highway 12 Ventures, Foundry Group, 500 Startups, and TechStars – occurred concurrently with a new partnership between SendGrid and Microsoft’s Windows Azure platform.[40]

In December 2014, SendGrid raised $20 million in Series C funding. The series C round was led by a new investor Bain Capital Ventures. Current investors Bessemer Venture Partners and Foundry Group also participated.[41]

In November 2016, SendGrid raised $33 million in Series D funding. The round was led by Bain Capital Ventures, with participation from Bessemer Ventures and the Foundry Group.[18]

Growth and development

The company announced in May 2011 that it had sent over 9 billion emails to more than 23,000 companies since its founding.[27] In the same month, SendGrid announced a partnership with web host service Rackspace Hosting that allows Rackspace users to launch email campaigns using SendGrid's software.[7][24][26]

By January 2012, the service reported sending out 2.6 billion personalized emails monthly.[12][42][43] By March, the company was experiencing 10% monthly growth.[24]

SendGrid announced in June 2012 that it was working with 60,000 businesses and had sent out 45 billion emails since its start in 2009.[12]

On July 25, 2012, the company reported it had partnered with platform-as-a-service (PaaS) companies CloudBees, Heroku, and Engine Yard.[15] The company opened its Denver office the following October.[9][14][17]

In December 2012, SendGrid partnered with Twilio to incorporate SMS and push notification services to its platform.[15][44] The company announced integrations with Parse, Windows Azure, and StackMob the same month.[45] In April 2013, SendGrid announced it had sent over 100 billion emails.[46] That June, the company released its new email marketing service.[47][48][49] The service allows marketing professionals and non-technical users to create emails using various newsletter templates and features a drag-and-drop template to fill in the content.[48][49]

Former Citrix executive Sameer Dholakia joined SendGrid as the CEO in September 2014.[50]

In October 2017, SendGrid was ranked #13 in Fortune's list of The 50 Best Workplaces in Southern California.[51]

In December 2017, SendGrid announced that they are processing around 36 billion monthly emails.[34]

In October 2018, Twilio announced plans to acquire SendGrid for $2 billion.[52]

In December 2018, a SendGrid shareholder filed a lawsuit in Colorado federal court in response to the planned acquisition.[53]

Twilio completed its acquisition of SendGrid on February 1, 2019.[54]

Since the acquisition in 2019, a growing number of customers have complained about support response time, leading to a large number of negative reviews.[55]

References

  1. ↑ "SendGrid Appoints Sameer Dholakia as New CEO". www.prnewswire.com (Press release). Retrieved 2016-04-25.
  2. ↑ "SendGrid Company Profile". Craft. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
  3. ↑ Leena Rao (March 9, 2011). "SendGrid Sends 7.5 Million Emails, Brings Former Oracle Exec As CEO". TechCrunch. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  4. ↑ "TechStars Incubator Hatches 10 New Companies". TechCrunch. August 6, 2009. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  5. ↑ Dana Oshiro (September 30, 2009). "TechStars Investor Day Hits a Home Run". ReadWrite. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  6. ↑ "SendGrid raises $21M in VC; Microsoft to partner". Denver Business Journal. January 17, 2012. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 "How SendGrid Makes Sure Those App Emails Go Through, With Jim Franklin". TechRockies. November 13, 2012. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  8. 1 2 Ben Kuo (November 16, 2012). "Ten of Southern California's Top Software Companies". socalTECH. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Sprouter (October 31, 2012). "Just do it: Ideas are worthless unless you execute them, startup founder says". Financial Post. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  10. ↑ Sarah Kuta (February 12, 2012). "From unlimited burritos to on-site yoga, Boulder firms pile on perks". Boulder Daily Camera. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  11. 1 2 Brad McCarty (May 16, 2013). "Startup Stories: SendGrid shares its passion for fixing email". The Next Web. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  12. 1 2 3 4 Leena Rao (January 17, 2012). "Bessemer Leads 21m Round In Cloud-Based Email Delivery And Management Service SendGrid". TechCrunch. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  13. 1 2 3 Sean Ludwig (February 18, 2013). "10 Boulder startups we're excited about". VentureBeat. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  14. 1 2 Andy Vuong (November 5, 2012). "Could downtown Denver be the next Silicon Valley?". The Denver Post. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  15. 1 2 3 4 Sean Ludwig (July 25, 2012). "SendGrid partners with Heroku, Engine Yard, & others on email management". VentureBeat. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  16. ↑ Sean Ludwig (December 4, 2012). "Cloud tag team: SendGrid and Twilio partner on email, SMS, and voicemail solutions for the enterprise". VentureBeat. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  17. 1 2 Greg Avery (August 10, 2012). "Boulder's SendGrid opening Denver office". Denver Business Journal. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  18. 1 2 "Email delivery platform SendGrid raises $33 million ahead of IPO in 2017". VentureBeat. 2016-11-30. Retrieved 2018-08-01.
  19. ↑ Chuang, Tamara (2017-11-12). "As SendGrid preps for public debut, the IPO market appears receptive". The Denver Post. Retrieved 2017-11-13.
  20. ↑ Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry (August 2, 2011). "SendGrid Is Sending 2 Billion Emails Per Month And Just Getting Started". Business Insider. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  21. 1 2 Ingrid Lunden (June 29, 2012). "Inbox Alert: SendGrid Sends 45B Emails For 60,000 Customers, 20B In 2012 Alone". TechCrunch. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  22. 1 2 3 4 5 Leena Rao (December 8, 2009). "SendGrid Raises $750K for Email Delivery Software". TechCrunch. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  23. ↑ Stephanie Miles (August 1, 2012). "SendGrid: Reliable Email Delivery for Businesses". AppVita. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  24. 1 2 3 4 Julie Bort (March 1, 2012). "All Those Emails From Pinterest Are Very Good For This Guy". Business Insider. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  25. 1 2 3 Evelyn Rusli (April 20, 2010). "SendGrid Raises $5 Million, Sends A Bajillion Emails". TechCrunch. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  26. 1 2 Nicole Henderson (May 19, 2011). "Web Host Rackspace Partners with Email Infrastructure Provider SendGrid". TheWhir. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  27. 1 2 Rip Empson (May 10, 2011). "Email Delivery System SendGrid Announces New Pricing Model, Now You Can Pay-As-You-Go". TechCrunch. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  28. ↑ Bambi Francisco Roizen (January 17, 2012). "SendGrid gets $21m in capital, led by Bessemer". Vator. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  29. ↑ Ronson, Jon (21 February 2015). "The Internet Shaming of Lindsey Stone". The Guardian.
  30. ↑ "Comment to Hacker News article 'Inappropriate comments at pycon 2013 called out'".
  31. ↑ "Techie Adria Richards fired after tweeting about men's comments". CBS News.
  32. ↑ Zandt, Deanna. "Why Asking What Adria Richards Could Have Done Differently Is The Wrong Question". Forbes.
  33. ↑ Vuong, Andy (March 25, 2013). "SendGrid employee's tweet sets off firestorm". The Denver Post. Retrieved September 18, 2015.
  34. 1 2 Duskic, Goran (2017-12-13). "How SendGrid became one of the largest API companies in the world - Isaac Saldana Interview - WhoAPI blog". WhoAPI blog. Retrieved 2017-12-13.
  35. ↑ Alan Shimel (July 11, 2013). "Boulder Startup Spotlight: SendGrid, an American success story". NetworkWorld. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  36. ↑ Martin Tantow (March 19, 2011). "The Top 100 Cloud Computing Private Companies". CloudTimes. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  37. ↑ "Techstars Boulder Companies SendGrid and Retel Announce Financings". Feld. December 10, 2009. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  38. ↑ Alastair Goldfisher (May 4, 2010). "TechStars startup SendGrid raises $5 million". Reuters. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  39. ↑ Dan Primack (January 18, 2012). "Venture capital deals". CNN Money. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  40. ↑ Ryan Kim (January 17, 2012). "Email is still hot: Why SendGrid got $21M in VC funds". Gigaom. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  41. ↑ "SendGrid Caches $20M Series C for Email Technology". Wall Street Journal. 2014-12-02. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2020-12-21.
  42. ↑ Alicia Wallace (January 18, 2012). "Boulder startup SendGrid raises $21 million". The Denver Post. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  43. ↑ Liz Gannes (January 17, 2012). "SendGrid Raises $21M to Send Even More Emails". AllThingsD.com. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  44. ↑ Harrison Weber (December 4, 2012). "SendGrid and Twilio team up to offer email, SMS, voice and push notifications for the enterprise market". The Next Web. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  45. ↑ Barb Darrow (December 13, 2012). "SendGrid adds Parse, Stackmob, Azure integrations". Gigaom. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  46. ↑ Denise Hulce (April 29, 2013). "9 Best practice tips for marketing emails". FourthSource. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  47. ↑ Sean Ludwig (June 18, 2013). "SendGrid launches email marketing service that undercuts MailChimp & Constant Contact". VentureBeat. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  48. 1 2 Barb Darrow (June 18, 2013). "SendGrid picks fight with heavyweight MailChimp in email marketing". Gigaom. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  49. 1 2 Kristina Knight (June 18, 2013). "SendGrid launches email service". BizReport. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  50. ↑ Avery, Greg (September 30, 2014). "SendGrid replaces Franklin as CEO". Denver Business Journal.
  51. ↑ "The 50 Best Workplaces in Southern California". Fortune. Retrieved 2020-03-17.
  52. ↑ Condon, Stephanie (15 October 2018). "Twilio to acquire email API platform SendGrid for $2 billion". ZDNet. Retrieved 8 November 2018.
  53. ↑ Jones, Diana Novak (6 December 2018). "Shareholder Sues SendGrid Over $2B Twilio Deal - Law360". www.law360.com. Retrieved 2019-01-07.
  54. ↑ "Twilio Completes Acquisition of SendGrid". www.twilio.com. 1 February 2019. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  55. ↑ "SendGrid Reviews". www.trustpilot.com. 2 September 2020. Retrieved 2 September 2020.

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