SendGrid

Twilio SendGrid, commonly known as SendGrid, is an American communication platform for transactional and marketing email based in Denver, Colorado.[2]

History

SendGrid was founded in 2009 by Isaac Saldana, Jose Lopez, and Tim Jenkins.[4][5] Later, it was incubated through the Techstars accelerator program.[6][7] By December 2009, the company announced it had raised $750,000 in a funding round led by Highway 12 Ventures. Other participating investors included SoftTech VC, FF Angel, and TechStars founder David Cohen.

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] Ryan McIntyre, the co-founder of Foundry, joined SendGrid's board of directors at this time as well.

In January 2012, SendGrid raised $21 million in Series B funding, led by Bessemer Venture Partners.[9][10][11] In August 2012, SendGrid opened an office in Denver.[12][13] In December 2012, SendGrid partnered with Twilio to incorporate SMS and push notification services to its platform.[14][15]

In March 2013, the controversial firing of Adria Richards and the surrounding circumstances became known as Donglegate.[16][17][18] In June 2013, SendGrid released its new email marketing service.[19][20][21]

In September 2014, former Citrix executive Sameer Dholakia joined SendGrid as the CEO.[22] 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.[23]

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.[13]

SendGrid went public with a debut in the New York Stock Exchange on November 16, 2017.[24]

In October 2018, Twilio announced plans to acquire SendGrid for $2 billion.[25] Twilio completed its acquisition of SendGrid on February 1, 2019.[26]

In May 2025, Twilio retired SendGrid's free email API plan and free marketing campaigns plan, requiring customers to transition to paid tiers.[27] During Cyber Week 2025, SendGrid processed 75.1 billion emails, a 14.6% increase over the previous year's record.[28] In February 2026, Twilio announced that the SendGrid.com website would be fully merged into Twilio.com, consolidating the brands after their 2019 acquisition.[29]

Platform

SendGrid provides a cloud-based service that assists businesses with email delivery.[30][31] 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.[32][33] Additionally, the company provides link tracking and open rate reporting.[32] It also allows companies to track email opens, unsubscribes, bounces, and spam reports.[32][34]

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,[35] until it ended its free version in May 2025.[36]

External links