SAN FRANCISCO — December 8, 2021 — Twilio (NYSE: TWLO) (LTSE: TWLO), the leading cloud communications platform, today announced the launch of Twilio Ventures and its new $50 million fund designed to champion the next generation of builders that are building the future of customer engagement.
Twilio Ventures will primarily invest in early stage companies with opportunistic investments in late stage companies at the intersection of customer engagement and developers. Two key areas of investment include: 1) Ecosystem investments that promote the success of developers, partners and solutions within the Twilio ecosystem to create paths for every type of builder and 2) Frontier investments in adjacent thematic areas that are building innovative solutions for delivering better customer experiences and engagement. In addition to funding, the venture program will provide portfolio companies with ongoing mentorship, potential product and go-to-market support, and exposure to Twilio’s leadership, partners and customers, among other benefits.
“Twilio operates at the customer layer of the internet to solve businesses’ most critical challenge — engaging with their customers,” said Bryan Vaniman, senior vice president of corporate development. “We have deep roots in the developer ecosystem and have been partnering with startups for many years. Twilio Ventures will accelerate our ability to empower builders and the start-up community building the future of customer engagement by investing directly in their growth and success.”
Twilio Ventures has completed several investments this year in companies like Algolia, an API platform for search and dynamic experiences; Mux, a platform that enables developers to build unique live and on-demand video experiences; Hyro, an adaptive conversational AI platform; Calixa, a product-led growth platform for go-to-market teams; Well Health Inc., a SaaS digital health leader in patient communications and Terazo, an API-first software development, DevOps, and platform managed services firm. Other previous investments include Community, the innovative text messaging platform that powers direct relationships and one-on-one conversations at scale; Courier, a developer infrastructure for product notifications; and Krisp, an AI-powered app to remove background noise and echo in meetings.
“Twilio and Algolia share a vision of utilizing API building blocks to empower developers to improve the customer experience and engagement,” said Bernadette Nixon, CEO of Algolia. “As a truly developer-first company pushing the boundaries of customer engagement, we are thrilled to have the support of Twilio as we embark on our next phase of growth.”
The Twilio Ventures program is in addition to Twilio’s existing Twilio.org Impact Fund that supports nonprofits and social enterprises that are accelerating social impact through innovative communications and engagement technologies. The Impact Fund focuses on platforms and strategies that make it easier, faster, and more affordable for organizations to connect with the people they serve, via annual grant cycles, and seed or Series A investment in social enterprises. Most recently, the Twilio.org Impact Fund invested in the Kapor Capital Fund III, which supports organizations using technology to close gaps of access, opportunity and outcomes across fintech, healthtech and edtech.
To learn more about Twilio Ventures, visit www.twilio.com/ventures.
About Twilio
Millions of developers around the world have used Twilio to unlock the magic of communications to improve any human experience. Twilio has democratized communications channels like voice, text, chat, video, and email by virtualizing the world’s communications infrastructure through APIs that are simple enough for any developer to use, yet robust enough to power the world’s most demanding applications. By making communications a part of every software developer’s toolkit, Twilio is enabling innovators across every industry — from emerging leaders to the world’s largest organizations — to reinvent how companies engage with their customers.
Author Information
As a detail-oriented researcher, Sherril is expert at discovering, gathering and compiling industry and market data to create clear, actionable market and competitive intelligence. With deep experience in market analysis and segmentation she is a consummate collaborator with strong communication skills adept at supporting and forming relationships with cross-functional teams in all levels of organizations.
She brings more than 20 years of experience in technology research and marketing; prior to her current role, she was a Research Analyst at Omdia, authoring market and ecosystem reports on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and User Interface technologies. Sherril was previously Manager of Market Research at Intrado Life and Safety, providing competitive analysis and intelligence, business development support, and analyst relations.
Sherril holds a Master of Business Administration in Marketing from University of Colorado, Boulder and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Rutgers University.
