SendGrid explained

SendGrid
Type:Subsidiary
Founder:Isaac Saldana, Jose Lopez, Tim Jenkins
Key People:Sameer Dholakia (CEO)[1]
Industry:Technology
Foundation:2009
Revenue:$111.9 million (2017)[2]
Parent:Twilio
Location City:Denver, Colorado
Location Country:United States

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.[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.[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.[22] [23] [24] Additionally, the company provides link tracking and open rate reporting. It also allows companies to track email opens, unsubscribes, bounces, and spam reports.[25] Beginning in 2012, the company integrated SMS, voice, and push notification abilities into its service through a partnership with Twilio.

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.[26] [27]

SendGrid's clients include Uber, Twilio, Foursquare, Pandora, and Airbnb.[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.[35] [36] [37] By December 2009, the company announced it had raised $750,000 in a funding round led by Highway 12 Ventures. Other participating investors included SoftTech VC, FF Angel, and TechStars founder David Cohen.

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.[38] Ryan McIntyre, the co-founder of Foundry, joined SendGrid's board of directors at this time as well.

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.

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. 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.

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

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.

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

In December 2012, SendGrid partnered with Twilio to incorporate SMS and push notification services to its platform.[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.

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]

Notes and References

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

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