Twilio Explained

Industry:Communications
Twilio Inc.
Company Type:Public
Headquarters:Rincon Center
San Francisco, California, U.S.
Founded: in Seattle, Washington, U.S.[1]
Num Employees:5,507 (June 2024)
Footnotes:[2] [3]
Module:
Child:yes

Twilio Inc. is an American cloud communications company based in San Francisco, California, which provides programmable communication tools for making and receiving phone calls, sending and receiving text messages, and performing other communication functions using its web service APIs.

History

Twilio was founded in 2008 by Jeff Lawson, Evan Cooke, and John Wolthuis[4] and was based initially in Seattle, Washington, and San Francisco, California.[5]

On November 20, 2008, the company launched Twilio Voice, an API to make and receive phone calls completely hosted in the cloud.[6] Twilio's text messaging API was released in February 2010,[7] and SMS shortcodes were released in public beta in July 2011.[8]

Twilio raised approximately $103 million in venture capital growth funding. Twilio received its first round of seed funding in March 2009 for an undisclosed amount from Mitch Kapor, The Founders Fund, Dave McClure, David G. Cohen, Chris Sacca, Manu Kumar, from K9 Ventures, and Jeff Fluhr.[9]

Twilio's first A round of funding was led by Union Square Ventures for $3.7 million and its second B round of funding, for $12 million, was led by Bessemer Venture Partners.[10]

Twilio received $17 million in a Series C round in December 2011 from Bessemer Venture Partners and Union Square Ventures.[11]

In July 2013 Twilio received another $70 million from Redpoint Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), and Bessemer Venture Partners.[12]

In July 2015, Twilio raised a $130 million Series E from Fidelity, T Rowe Price, Altimeter Capital Management, and Arrowpoint Partners, in addition to Amazon and Salesforce.[13]

Twilio filed for IPO and started trading on June 23, 2016, with a 92% increase on the first day.[14]

In March 2020, Twilio announced the appointment of Steve Pugh as Chief Security Officer and Glenn Weinstein as Chief Customer Officer.[15]

On August 4, 2022, an unknown attacker accessed Twilio's internal network through an SMS phishing campaign targeting Twilio's employees. Twilio confirmed the breach three days later, clarifying that it affected only "a limited number" of customer accounts.[16] On August 15, Signal announced that it had been affected by the breach, indicating that the 125 customers affected included at least some enterprise accounts.[17]

In September 2022, Twilio laid off 11% of its workforce to become profitable.[18] In the company announcement, former CEO Jeff Lawson claimed decisions of which employees to lay off were made through an "anti-racist/anti-oppression lens".[19] [20] The company announced an additional 17% cut in its workforce, nearly 1,500 employees, in February 2023.[21] As a part of restructuring, the company also announced creation of two business unitsTwilio Data & Applications and Twilio Communications.[22] In December 2023, Twilio announced its decision to reduce its workforce by 5%, affecting around 300 employees, primarily within its Data and Applications division.[23]

Twilio is known for using platform evangelism to acquire customers.[24] An early example is GroupMe, which was founded in May 2010 at the hackathon of TechCrunch Disrupt and uses Twilio's text messaging product to facilitate group chat.[25] GroupMe raised $10.6 million in venture funding in January 2011.[26]

Following the success of TechCrunch Disrupt, seed accelerator 500 Startups (now 500 Global) announced the Twilio Fund, a $250,000 "micro-fund" to provide seed money to startups using Twilio in September 2010.[27] [28]

In January 2024, Twilio founder Jeff Lawson stepped down as CEO and board member and was replaced by Khozema Shipchandler as CEO.[3] Later that year in July, alleged threat actors acquired the phone numbers of over 33 million users of the company's multi-factor authentication service "Authy".[29]

Acquisitions

In February 2015, Twilio acquired Authy, a Y Combinator–backed startup that offers two-factor authentication services to end users, developers and enterprises.[30]

In September 2016, Twilio acquired Tikal Technologies, the development team behind the Kurento WebRTC open-source project, for $8.5 million.[31]

In February 2017, Twilio acquired Beepsend, a Swedish-based SMS messaging provider, for an undisclosed amount.[32]

Twilio announced in September 2018 that they were acquiring Ytica, a Prague, Czech Republic–based speech analytics firm, for an undisclosed amount.[33]

In October 2018 of that same year Twilio announced they were acquiring SendGrid, a Denver, Colorado-based customer communication platform for transactional and marketing email, for $2 billion.[34] In February 2019, the two companies were formally merged in a deal valued at $3 billion.[35]

In November 2018, the company acquired Core Network Dynamics GmbH, a Berlin, Germany-based virtual evolved packet core company.[36]

Twilio announced in July 2020 that they had acquired Electric Imp, an internet of things platform company, for an undisclosed amount.[37] In October of that year, the company acquired Segment, a platform to collect, clean, and activate customer data, for $3.2 billion.[38]

In May 2021, Twilio acquired Ionic Security, a data security platform for $30.2 million,[39] [40] and Zipwhip, a toll-free messaging services provider, for $850 million.[41] [42]

In January 2022, Twilio announced that they agreed to acquire Boku Identity, Inc. from Boku, Inc. for $32.3 million.[43] [44]

Technology

Twilio uses Amazon Web Services to host its communication infrastructure via APIs.[45] Twilio follows specific architectural design principles to protect against unexpected outages and received praise for staying online during the widespread Amazon Web Services outage in April 2011.[46]

Rather than using industry-standard protocols such as SIP for call control, Twilio uses a customized markup language known as TwiML to allow for direct integration with its services.[47] Twilio and the customer typically exchange TwiML documents via HTTP Webhook.

Open-source contributions

Twilio is known to support open source software development. In June 2010, Twilio launched OpenVBX, an open-source product that lets business users configure phone numbers to receive and route phone calls.[48] One month later, Twilio engineer Kyle Conroy released Stashboard, an open-source status dashboard written in the Python programming language that any API or software service can use to display whether their service is functioning properly.[49]

Twilio also sponsors Localtunnel,[50] created by former engineer Jeff Lindsay, which enables software developers to expose their local development environment to the public Internet from behind a NAT.[51]

Twilio lists several other open-source projects on their website, such as:

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Super angel McClure unveils 'micro-fund' for Twilio apps . 24 September 2010 . . John Cook.
  2. Web site: US SEC: Twilio, Inc. Form 10-K . 27 February 2024 . U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
  3. Web site: Twilio CEO Lawson steps down after bruising activist battles . 8 January 2024 . CNBC . 9 January 2024.
  4. Web site: Twilio Raises $3.7 Million For Powerful Telephony API . TechCrunch . 2009-12-30 . 2015-12-03.
  5. Web site: Twilio scores funding to build telecom in the cloud business . Techflash.com . 2015-12-03.
  6. Kincaid, Jason (November 20, 2008). "Twilio: Powerful API For Phone Services That Can Recreate GrandCentral's Core Functionality In 15 Lines Of Code". TechCrunch.
  7. Kincaid, Jason (February 9, 2010). "Twilio's Telephony API Now Lets Applications Send And Receive SMS Messages". TechCrunch.
  8. Kincaid, Jason (July 13, 2011). "Twilio's Streamlined Shortcode API Now Open To All". TechCrunch.
  9. Web site: Twilio Closes Funding Round, Lands Major Customers For Its Telephony API . TechCrunch . 2009-03-02 . 2015-12-03.
  10. Web site: Twilio Raises $12 Million For Powerful Telephony API . TechCrunch . 2010-11-09 . 2015-12-03.
  11. Web site: Twilio Raises $17 Million Series C From Bessemer and Union Square To Expand Abroad . TechCrunch . 2011-12-07 . 2015-12-03.
  12. Web site: Twilio Raises A $70M Series D As They Consider An IPO . TechCrunch . 2013-06-07 . 2015-12-03.
  13. Web site: Twilio lands $130 million to make it easier to communicate via software. Fortune. en. 2019-01-02.
  14. News: Twilio's Shares Jump 92% in Trading Debut . . 23 June 2016 . Corrie . Driebusch . Maureen . Farrell.
  15. Web site: Twilio Welcomes Steve Pugh as Chief Security Officer and Glenn Weinstein as Chief Customer Officer. Valdosta Daily Times. en. 2020-03-05.
  16. Web site: Twilio suffers data breach after a phishing campaign targeted its employees . August 8, 2022 . Roth . Emma . The Verge . August 8, 2022.
  17. Web site: Signal says 1,900 users' phone numbers exposed by Twilio breach . August 15, 2022 . Oage . Carly . TechCrunch . August 16, 2022.
  18. News: Twilio lays off 11% of its staff as it aims for profitability in 2023. Wiggers. Kyle. 2022-09-14. TechCrunch. 2022-09-26. en.
  19. Web site: Twilio promises 'anti-racist' layoffs as CEO says 11% job cuts won't hit workers from 'marginalized communities' more than others . 2022-09-14 . Robison . Kylie . . limited . https://archive.today/20220916042427/https://fortune.com/2022/09/14/twilio-declares-anti-racist-layoffs/ . 2022-09-16 . live.
  20. Web site: Lawson. Jeff. A Message from Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson. 2022-09-26. Twilio. en.
  21. News: Ford . Brody . 2023-02-13 . Twilio Announces Second Wave of Layoffs, Cutting 17% of Workforce . Bloomberg News.
  22. Web site: Capoot . Ashley . 2023-02-13 . Twilio to lay off about 1,500 employees, or 17% of its workforce . CNBC.
  23. News: Goswami . Rohan . Twilio lays off 5% of employees in unit activists want to divest . 17 February 2024 . CNBC.
  24. Web site: Twilio's Founder On How To Partner With 20,000 Developers - with Jeff Lawson . Mixergy . 2011-01-10 . 2015-12-03.
  25. Web site: Inception: A Hackday Dream (The Story Of GroupMe) . TechCrunch . 2010-08-26 . 2015-12-03.
  26. Web site: Matthew Lynley . January 4, 2011 . Group texting startup GroupMe raises $10.6M despite being a long way from revenue . VentureBeat . 2015-12-03.
  27. Web site: Om Malik . Got a Twilio-based App? Get Some Investment Dollars . Gigaom . 2010-09-23 . 2015-12-03 . 2015-12-08 . https://web.archive.org/web/20151208041939/http://gigaom.com/2010/09/23/got-a-twilio-based-app-get-some-investment-dollars/ . dead .
  28. Web site: Announcing Twilio Fund for 500 Startups . July 21, 2011 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110130060315/http://blog.500startups.com/2010/09/23/twilio-fund-for-500-startups/ . January 30, 2011 .
  29. Web site: Twilio alerts Authy two-factor app users that ‘threat actors’ have their phone numbers. Emma. Roth. July 3, 2024. The Verge. July 6, 2024.
  30. News: Twilio Acquires Two-Factor Authentication Service Authy. Lardinois. Frederic. 2015-02-24. TechCrunch. 2017-12-28. en.
  31. Web site: Twilio paid $8.5 million in cash for assets of Kurento Open Source Project . VentureBeat . 2017-02-22 . 2017-02-25.
  32. News: Twilio acquires Beepsend to make message delivery more efficient on its Super Network. Matney. Lucas. 2017-02-07. TechCrunch. 2017-12-28. en.
  33. News: Twilio's contact center products just got more analytical with Ytica acquisition. Miller. Ron. 2018-09-11. TechCrunch. en.
  34. News: Twilio to Acquire SendGrid, the Leading Email API Platform. 2018-10-15. BusinessWire. 2018-10-16. en.
  35. Web site: 2019-02-05 . Value of Denver-based SendGrid goes up to $3B as San Francisco's Twilio completes acquisition . 2022-09-27 . The Denver Post . en-US.
  36. News: Twilio buys Core Network Dynamics. 2018-11-14. the-mobile-network.com. en.
  37. Web site: Electric Imp is now part of Twilio. 2020-08-03. connect.electricimp.com. en. 2020-08-11. https://web.archive.org/web/20200811090253/https://connect.electricimp.com/blog/electric-imp-is-now-part-of-twilio. dead.
  38. Web site: Twilio confirms it is buying Segment for $3.2B in an all-stock deal. 2020-10-12. TechCrunch. 12 October 2020. en-US.
  39. Web site: MarketScreener . Twilio Inc. acquired Ionic Security Inc. for $30.2 million. MarketScreener . 2022-11-22 . www.marketscreener.com . en.
  40. Web site: Cybersecurity M&A Roundup: 36 Deals Announced in May 2021 SecurityWeek.Com . 2022-11-22 . www.securityweek.com. June 2021 .
  41. Web site: Gagliordi. Natalie. Twilio to acquire toll-free messaging provider Zipwhip for $850 million. 2021-05-18. ZDNet. en.
  42. Web site: Schlosser . Kurt . 2021-05-17 . Twilio to acquire Seattle business texting startup Zipwhip for $850M . 2022-12-10 . GeekWire . en-US.
  43. Web site: MarketScreener . Twilio Inc. agreed to acquire Boku Identity, Inc. from Boku, Inc. for $32.3 million. MarketScreener . 2023-01-28 . www.marketscreener.com . en.
  44. Web site: Twilio and Boku Mobile Identity Come Together to Offer Secure Onboarding . 2023-01-28 . Twilio Blog . en.
  45. Harris, Derrick (March 3, 2009). "Why Amazon Will Make or Break Twilio" . Gigaom.
  46. Dubray, Jean-Jacques (April 25, 2011). "Twilio's Cloud Architecture Principles". InfoQ.
  47. Web site: Levent-Levi . Tsahi . 2020-01-06 . The top 6 CPaaS trends to track in 2022 . 2022-12-10 . TechTarget . en.
  48. Web site: Twilio Releases OpenVBX, An Open Source Google Voice For Businesses . TechCrunch . 2010-06-15 . 2015-12-03.
  49. Web site: Catacchio . Chad . 2010-07-21 . Twilio open sources Stashboard, an API monitoring dashboard . 2022-12-10 . TNW Apps . en.
  50. Web site: Localhost running on mac.. Can I view it on my Android phone? . 2023-06-21 . Stack Overflow . en.
  51. Web site: Vijayakumar . N. V. . 2020-10-12 . Twilio To Acquire Cloud Customer Data Startup Segment For $3.2 Billion - The NFA Post . 2023-06-21 . en-US.
  52. Web site: flask-restful/flask-restful. Github . 2015-12-03.
  53. Web site: twilio/shadow . Github . 2015-12-03.
  54. Web site: twilio/BankersBox . Github . 2015-12-03.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Twilio".

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