Founded in 2011, Amsterdam-based startup and cloud-communications platform, MessageBird, just nabbed the largest early-stage venture capital investment into a European software company in history.
The $60-million “Series A” round of funding was led by venture capital firms, Accel and Atomico, from the US and Europe, as well as Y-Combinator, a startup incubator based in Silicon Valley.
The messaging software provides social media services to Twitter, Facebook Messenger and “Wechat”. It also helps clients in the likes of Uber, Heineken, and even governments connect to customers via “SMS, Chat, and Voice” on billions of devices around the world. Think medical appointment notifications or the message you receive when your Uber arrives, for example.
What sets MessageBird apart from other cloud-based messaging competitors like Twilio, Blackberry, Nexmo and Urban Airship is that it has secured deals with 220 telecommunication carriers worldwide. This means its messaging infrastructure is secure, fast and reliable at a low cost, rather than operating over the internet.
As explained by founder and CEO of MessageBird, Robert Vis, during the 2017 TNW Conference, up until now, MessageBird was ‘bootstrapped and profitable’, receiving practically no outside investment at all since 2011.
Robert explained during a phone call to TNW that he is now looking forward to working with enterprises to assist MessageBird’s global expansion. The company forecasts it will generate revenue of €100 million in 2017, up from €41 million in 2016. The funding will no doubt raise MessageBird’s profile even further and is going to be used to target new customers and accelerate hiring throughout the US, Europe and Asia.
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