SendGrid Secures $20M Series C Funding
Newly-appointed SendGrid CEO Sameer Dholakia, leads closing of C round, sets stage for next phase of growth
SendGrid, the leading email delivery platformfor email that matters announced that it has closed just over $20M in C round funding. The round includes funds from new investor Bain Capital Ventures as well as reinvestments from Bessemer Venture Partners and Foundry Group. Funding was secured with the guidance and support of Sameer Dholakia, SendGrid’s recently appointed CEO.
Expanding Market for Email Delivery Platforms
The market for SendGrid’s email delivery platform is growing rapidly. Fueled by the boom in mobile apps, Radicati Group anticipates that email is expected to grow to a $12 billion market by 2016 and email traffic is estimated to grow to over 192 billion emails sent per day, presenting brands with prime opportunities for customer engagement. Furthermore, Forrester projects email marketing services spending to grow from to $2.8B by 2018.
“Email is the world’s number one customer engagement tool and is still the most cost-effective way for companies to interact with their customers. When it comes to email, deliverability is non-negotiable,” said Sameer Dholakia, CEO of SendGrid. “Developers and marketers know they can depend on our platform and expertise to deliver their emails. As a result, we have grown with our customers and become a fundamental part of their customer engagement strategy. We are thrilled to work with Bain Capital Ventures as we accelerate our business to the next level. This investment will allow us to expand the functionality of our platform and increase our channels to market.”
Major Milestone: 300 Billion Emails Sent
Today’s funding announcement comes at the same time as another important company milestone – SendGrid has now sent over 300 billion emails. Its proven email platform sends more than 435 million emails per day and 15 billion emails per month. By powering email for Internet and mobile brands including Pinterest, AirBnB, Pandora, GlassDoor, GitHub, Hubspot, Spotify, Uber, LinkedIn and FourSquare, SendGrid has rapidly scaled from 200 to 300 billion emails sent in just eight months.
Investor Insights and Strategic Partnerships
“The largest and most successful modern cloud applications have tightly integrated email into their experience using SendGrid,” said Ajay Agarwal, Managing Director at Bain Capital Ventures. “We are excited to be working with Sameer and his team as SendGrid embarks on their next phase of growth and builds on their strong leadership position.”
