 | |
 SendGrid headquarters in Denver | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Technology |
| Founded | 2009 |
| Founder | Isaac Saldana Jose Lopez Tim Jenkins |
| Headquarters | , |
Key people | Sameer Dholakia (CEO) |
| Revenue | $111.9 million (2017) [1] |
| Parent | Twilio |
| Website | sendgrid |
Twilio SendGrid, commonly known as SendGrid, is an American communication platform for transactional and marketing email based in Denver, Colorado. [2]
SendGrid was founded in 2009 by Isaac Saldana, Jose Lopez, and Tim Jenkins. [3] [4] Later, it was incubated through the Techstars accelerator program. [5] [6] By December 2009, the company announced it had raised $750,000 in a funding round led by Highway 12 Ventures. [7] Other participating investors included SoftTech VC, FF Angel, and TechStars founder David Cohen. [7]
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. [8] [9] Ryan McIntyre, the co-founder of Foundry, joined SendGrid's board of directors at this time as well. [8]
In January 2012, SendGrid raised $21 million in Series B funding, led by Bessemer Venture Partners. [10] [11] [12] In August 2012, SendGrid opened an office in Denver. [13] [14] In December 2012, SendGrid partnered with Twilio to incorporate SMS and push notification services to its platform. [15] [16]
In March 2013, the controversial firing of Adria Richards and the surrounding circumstances became known as Donglegate. [17] [18] [19] In June 2013, SendGrid released its new email marketing service. [20] [21] [22]
In September 2014, former Citrix executive Sameer Dholakia joined SendGrid as the CEO. [23] 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. [24]
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. [14]
SendGrid went public with a debut in the New York Stock Exchange on November 16, 2017. [25]
In October 2018, Twilio announced plans to acquire SendGrid for $2 billion. [26] Twilio completed its acquisition of SendGrid on February 1, 2019. [27]
SendGrid provides a cloud-based service that assists businesses with email delivery. [28] [29] 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. [7] [30] Additionally, the company provides link tracking and open rate reporting. [7] It also allows companies to track email opens, unsubscribes, bounces, and spam reports. [7] [8]
SendGrid offered a freemium version and a Lite Plan (pay-as-you-go), as well as three expanded levels of service: Essentials, Pro, and Premier, [31] until it ended its free version in May 2025. [32]