SENDGRID RAISES $30 MILLION AS TALK OF IPO CONTINUES
SendGrid will announce Wednesday that it has raised $30 million from investors to keep growth on track for a possible initial public offering.
The fast-growing e-mail company, which went through the Boulder Techstars accelerator in 2009, has grown its business that handled e-mail transactions between consumers and, for example, Uber into one with 42,000 paying customers that send out 1 billion e-mails daily.
“In 2017, we will be generating $100 million in revenue. We’re growing at 40 percent year to year and profitable, which is pretty significant for a SaaS (software as a service) company,” SendGrid spokesman David Friedman said. “We’re excited to potentially be one of the first billion-dollar software companies born and bred in the state.”
SendGrid, which employs 322 people, left Boulder this month for a Denver headquarters, occupying the fifth floor and half of the sixth floor at 1801 California St.
But the company already needs more space and will take the rest of the sixth floor in the spring and expand to a third floor at the end of 2017.
Hiring plans include “another couple hundred people” in 2017 and to grow staff to 900 by 2020, Friedman said.
A large percentage of recent growth comes from international companies. SendGrid opened a London office a few months ago and expects to continue expanding outside the U.S.
The latest financing round, which brings SendGrid’s total investment to about $78 million, was led by existing investors Bain Capital, Bessemer Ventures Partners and Foundry Group.
The funds, Friedman added, will help SendGrid “accelerate our product road map, expand more internationally” and evaluate going public.