Twilio Beefs Up Communications Platform with SendGrid Buy

On the heels of acquiring Ytica last month, cloud communications platform Twilio is buying email API platform SendGrid in an all-stock deal valued at about $2 billion.

The resulting company will offer developers a single platform to manage all of their communication channels — voice, messaging, video and email. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2019.

Twilio Merger Subsidiary, a Delaware corporation and wholly-owned subsidiary of Twilio, will be merged with SendGrid, with SendGrid surviving as a wholly owned subsidiary of Twilio.

Twilio’s Caitlin Epstein

Caitlin Epstein, Twilio’s global PR lead, tells Channel Partners that email is a “mission-critical channel” for companies around the world, and the addition of SendGrid and email to the Twilio platform will “allow us to create the unquestioned platform of choice for all companies and partners looking to transform their customer engagement.”

SendGrid processes more than 45 billion emails each month for internet and mobile-based customers, as well as more traditional enterprises.

“The addition of the leading email API platform to the leading cloud communications platform can provide customers with the most powerful resource to connect with customers on any channel,” she said. “The acquisition accelerates our ability to provide that. We believe the combined companies can accomplish our mission much faster than either could accomplish on their own.”

Together, the companies drive more than 500 billion customer interactions annually, with that number growing rapidly.

SendGrid’s Elliot Goldwater

Over time, Twilio will integrate the “experiences of both products, but we will run independently for the time being,” Epstein said.

“The combination of SendGrid’s scale and functionality, along with the similarities in their developer-focused go-to-market will make an incredibly powerful combination that will benefit partners and accelerate our ability to provide a single omnichannel platform for customers,” said Elliot Goldwater, SendGrid’s director of business development and partnerships.

The boards of directors of Twilio and SendGrid have each approved the transaction.