Twilio (/ˈtwɪlioʊ/) is an American company based in San Francisco, California, which provides programmable communication tools for making and receiving phone calls, sending and receiving text messages, and performing other communication functions using its web service APIs.
History
Twilio inc chief executive officer Jeff Lawson
Twilio was founded in 2008 by Jeff Lawson, Evan Cooke, and John Wolthuis and was originally based in both Seattle, Washington, and San Francisco, California.
Twilio’s first major press coverage, in November 2008, was the result of an application built by Jeff Lawson to rickroll people, which investor Dave McClure used on TechCrunch founder and editor Michael Arrington as a prank. A few days later, on November 20, 2008, the company launched Twilio Voice, an API to make and receive phone calls completely hosted in the cloud. Twilio’s text messaging API was released in February 2010, and SMS shortcodes were released in public beta in July 2011.
Twilio raised approximately $103 million in venture capital growth funding. Twilio received its first round of seed funding in March 2009 for an undisclosed amount from Mitch Kapor, The Founders Fund, Dave McClure, David G. Cohen, Chris Sacca, Manu Kumar, from K9 Ventures and Jeff Fluhr. Twilio’s first A round of funding was led by Union Square Ventures for $3.7 million and its second B round of funding, for $12 million, was led by Bessemer Venture Partners. Twilio received $17 million in a Series C round in December 2011 from Bessemer Venture Partners and Union Square Ventures. In July 2013 Twilio received another $70 million from Redpoint Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) and Bessemer Venture Partners. In July 2015, Twilio raised a $130 million Series E from Fidelity, T Rowe Price, Altimeter Capital Management, Arrowpoint Partners, in addition to Amazon and Salesforce.
Twilio filed for IPO (NYSE: TWLO) and started trading on June 23, 2016 with a 92% increase on the first day.
In March 2020, Twilio announced the appointment of Steve Pugh as Chief Security Officer and Glenn Weinstein as Chief Customer Officer.
Twilio helps organizations and brands of all sizes create meaningful moments with users across the globe—from the simplest text messages to life-saving communications.
Chatting with customer support, receiving an appointment reminder, messaging your rideshare driver, getting a personalized coupon in your inbox, video conferencing with your doctor—all of those interactions have something in common: they’re powered by Twilio.
Reception
Twilio is known for its use of platform evangelism to acquire customers. An early example is GroupMe, which was founded in May 2010 at the TechCrunch Disrupt hackathon and uses Twilio’s text messaging product to facilitate group chat. GroupMe raised $10.6 million in venture funding in January 2011.
Following the success of TechCrunch Disrupt, seed accelerator 500 Startups (now 500 Global) announced the Twilio Fund, a $250,000 “micro-fund” to provide seed money to startups using Twilio in September 2010.
Acquisitions
In February 2015, Twilio acquired Authy, a Y Combinator-backed startup that offers two-factor authentication services to end users, developers and enterprises.
In September 2016, Twilio acquired Tikal Technologies, the development team behind the Kurento WebRTC open source project, for $8.5 million.
In February 2017, Twilio acquired Beepsend, a Swedish-based SMS messaging provider, for an undisclosed amount.
In September 2018, Twilio announced they were acquiring Ytica, a Prague, Czech Republic-based speech analytics firm, for an undisclosed amount.
In October 2018, Twilio announced they were acquiring SendGrid, a Denver, Colorado-based customer communication platform for transactional and marketing email, for $2 billion.
In November 2018, Twilio reported acquiring Core Network Dynamics GmbH, a Berlin, Germany-based virtual evolved packet core company.
In July 2020, Twilio announced they had acquired Electric Imp, an internet of things platform company, for an undisclosed amount.
In October 2020, Twilio acquired Segment, a platform to collect, clean, and activate customer data, for $3.2 billion.
In May 2021, Twilio announced that they were acquiring Ionic Security, a data security platform.
In May 2021, Twilio announced that they were acquiring Zipwhip, a toll-free messaging services provider, for $850 million.
Technology
Twilio uses Amazon Web Services to host its communication infrastructure via APIs. Twilio follows a set of architectural design principles to protect against unexpected outages and received praise for staying online during the widespread Amazon Web Services outage in April 2011.
Rather than using industry standard protocols such as SIP for call control Twilio uses a customized markup language known as TwIML to allow for direct integration with its services. Twilio and the customer typically exchange TwIML documents via HTTP Webhook.
Open-Source Contributions
Twilio is known to support the development of open-source software. In June 2010 Twilio launched OpenVBX, an open-source product that lets business users configure phone numbers to receive and route phone calls. One month later, Twilio engineer Kyle Conroy released Stashboard, an open-source status dashboard written in the Python programming language that any API or software service can use to display whether their service is functioning properly. Twilio also sponsors Localtunnel, created by now ex-Twilio engineer Jeff Lindsay, which enables software developers to expose their local development environment to the public Internet from behind a NAT.
Twilio lists a number of other open-source projects on their website, such as:
- Flask Restful: Python Flask (web framework) to build REST APIs.
- Shadow: Runs requests through a release candidate with real production traffic.
- Banker’s Box: Wrapper for storage backend.
But what exactly is Twilio?
The short answer: Twilio is a customer engagement platform used by hundreds of thousands of businesses and more than ten million developers worldwide to build unique, personalized experiences for their customers.
We’re known for democratizing channels like voice, text, chat, video, and email through APIs, making it easy for every organization to build meaningful interactions with customers on the channels they prefer.
But that’s just the beginning. With Segment, the world’s leading customer data platform, we now empower businesses to capture first-party customer data in real time, analyze it in a single view, and use it to supercharge interactions at scale.
This unique position gives us a front row seat to watch how communications and customer data, together, can invigorate companies and uplift communities. Our simple, robust tools help a wide variety of organizations, like Lyft, the American Red Cross, Dell, Airbnb, and many more, create lasting relationships with the people they serve.
We believe in a future that’s more engaged than ever before—one where inefficient, disconnected communications are a relic of the past. To learn more about how we’re building that future, read on to discover what we build and who we are.
What we build
The Twilio Customer Engagement Platform: Communication and data management tools for every organization
We’ve spent over a decade creating and perfecting tools to help organizations reach their audience. Today, that means we have tools that span the entire customer lifecycle—from marketing, to sales, to customer service.
Powerful applications to uplevel digital engagement
- Twilio Engage
Twilio Engage is a new omnichannel marketing and growth platform that lets businesses of all sizes use the same kinds of tools, data integrations, analytics, and channels to build personalized campaigns that the digital giants use. Twilio Engage is the latest in the suite of data management and analytics solutions offered by Twilio Segment.
- Twilio Frontline
In a digital-first world, your sales team needs a secure, compliant way to connect with customers anywhere. Twilio Frontline is a programmable mobile application that enables digital relationships over messaging and voice to improve sales efficiency and outcomes. Integrate the app with any CRM or customer database and start building meaningful relationships with customers.
- Twilio Flex
Twilio Flex is the industry’s most flexible cloud contact center platform. You can deploy a cloud-based, omnichannel contact center that’s free from the limits of SaaS applications—and easily create and customize the solution as you grow. For a great case study, learn how Lyft uses Twilio Flex to build trust and deliver exceptional experiences.
Explore more applications like multi-factor authentication and data management.
Access to the omnichannel experiences your users and customers love
- MessagingX
Twilio MessagingX has everything you need to engage with customers, as one of the world’s most widely-used, trusted, and accessible communication tools. You can use MessagingX to send and receive SMS, MMS, and OTT messages at scale with purpose-built APIs like Programmable Messaging and Conversations, using phone numbers in more than 180 countries. MessagingX is used by companies like Dell to generate more online sales, and by nonprofits like The Trevor Project to deliver essential communications.
- Voice
Direct connections make an impact. Twilio Programmable Voice lets you make, take, and modify calls from any device; seamlessly embed PSTN, SIP, or VoIP calling into any app, site, or service you can dream up. Learn how Twitter taps Twilio for instant global voice connectivity.
- Video
In recent years, video connectivity went from a nice-to-have to the universal go-to communication tool. With Twilio Video, you can build secure, real-time video and HD audio applications in just a few minutes. Telemedicine, distance learning, recruiting, social networking, and more, all built on WebRTC and our cloud infrastructure. With our SDKs, quickstarts, and open source sample code, launching is simple—which means more time to customize your perfect solution.
- Interactive live streaming
One of the newest additions to our lineup of channels, Twilio Live lets you get started with basic live streaming and ultimately create something truly special. Build interactive audio and video experiences for any use case, from events, to shopping, to fitness, and beyond.
We know how important it is for your emails to actually make it to the intended inbox, no matter how many you need to send. The Twilio SendGrid Email API solves deliverability challenges at scale, reliably delivering over 100 billion emails per month. Maximize inbox placement with streamlined tools, insightful recommendations, and expert services. Discover how Glassdoor helps job seekers find jobs they love with Twilio SendGrid. Interested in A/B testing, automation, and campaign analytics? We have a dedicated tool for Marketers, too.
So, how does it actually work?
All of our services are built on top of the Twilio Super Network.
The Super Network is a powerful web of connections between traditional telecommunications infrastructure and the internet, letting our customers seamlessly engage with their customers anytime, anywhere. Our 24/7 global operations center and dedicated engineering teams constantly monitor telecommunications carrier networks to optimize our services while providing unmatched redundancy, uptime, and security.
 | |
| Type of business | Public |
|---|---|
| Traded as |
|
| Founded | 2008 in Seattle, Washington, U.S. |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California, U.S. |
| Founder(s) |
|
| Key people |
|
| Industry | Communications |
| Products |
|
| Revenue |  US$2.84 billion (2021) |
| Operating income |  US$−915.6 million (2021) |
| Net income | US$−949.9 million (2021) |
| Total assets | US$13.00 billion (2021) |
| Total equity | US$11.03 billion (2021) |
| Employees | 7,867 (Dec 2021) |
| Subsidiaries |
|
| URL | twilio |
References
- ^ John Cook (24 September 2010). “Super angel McClure unveils ‘micro-fund’ for Twilio apps”. Puget Sound Business Journal.
- ^ “US SEC: Twilio, Inc. Form 10-K”. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 22 February 2022.
- ^ “Twilio Raises $3.7 Million For Powerful Telephony API”. TechCrunch. 2009-12-30. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
- ^ “Twilio scores funding to build telecom in the cloud business”. Techflash.com. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
- ^ Arrington, Michael (November 18, 2008). “Thanks Twilio, No One Is Safe From The RickRoll Now”. TechCrunch
- ^ Kincaid, Jason (November 20, 2008). “Twilio: Powerful API For Phone Services That Can Recreate GrandCentral’s Core Functionality In 15 Lines Of Code”. TechCrunch.
- ^ Kincaid, Jason (February 9, 2010). “Twilio’s Telephony API Now Lets Applications Send And Receive SMS Messages”. TechCrunch.
- ^ Kincaid, Jason (July 13, 2011). “Twilio’s Streamlined Shortcode API Now Open To All”. TechCrunch.
- ^ “Twilio Closes Funding Round, Lands Major Customers For Its Telephony API”. TechCrunch. 2009-03-02. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
- ^ “Twilio Raises $12 Million For Powerful Telephony API”. TechCrunch. 2010-11-09. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
- ^ “Twilio Raises $17 Million Series C From Bessemer and Union Square To Expand Abroad”. TechCrunch. 2011-12-07. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
- ^ “Twilio Raises A $70M Series D As They Consider An IPO”. TechCrunch. 2013-06-07. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
- ^ “Twilio lands $130 million to make it easier to communicate via software”. Fortune. Retrieved 2019-01-02.
- ^ Driebusch, Corrie; Farrell, Maureen (23 June 2016). “Twilio’s Shares Jump 92% in Trading Debut”. The Wall Street Journal.
- ^ “Twilio Welcomes Steve Pugh as Chief Security Officer and Glenn Weinstein as Chief Customer Officer”. Valdosta Daily Times. Retrieved 2020-03-05.
- ^ “Twilio’s Founder On How To Partner With 20,000 Developers – with Jeff Lawson”. Mixergy. 2011-01-10. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
- ^ “Inception: A Hackday Dream (The Story Of GroupMe)”. TechCrunch. 2010-08-26. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
- ^ Matthew Lynley (January 4, 2011). “Group texting startup GroupMe raises $10.6M despite being a long way from revenue”. VentureBeat. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
- ^ Om Malik (2010-09-23). “Got a Twilio-based App? Get Some Investment Dollars”. Gigaom. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
- ^ “Announcing Twilio Fund for 500 Startups”. Archived from the original on January 30, 2011. Retrieved July 21, 2011.
- ^ Lardinois, Frederic (2015-02-24). “Twilio Acquires Two-Factor Authentication Service Authy”. TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-12-28.
- ^ “Twilio paid $8.5 million in cash for assets of Kurento Open Source Project”. VentureBeat. 2017-02-22. Retrieved 2017-02-25.
- ^ Matney, Lucas (2017-02-07). “Twilio acquires Beepsend to make message delivery more efficient on its Super Network”. TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-12-28.
- ^ Miller, Ron (2018-09-11). “Twilio’s contact center products just got more analytical with Ytica acquisition”. TechCrunch.
- ^ “Twilio to Acquire SendGrid, the Leading Email API Platform”. BusinessWire. 2018-10-15. Retrieved 2018-10-16.
- ^ “Twilio buys Core Network Dynamics”. the-mobile-network.com. 2018-11-14.
- ^ “Electric Imp is now part of Twilio”. connect.electricimp.com. Retrieved 2020-08-03.
- ^ “Twilio confirms it is buying Segment for $3.2B in an all-stock deal”. TechCrunch. Retrieved 2020-10-12.
- ^ Lowe, Alex. “Twilio Acquires Ionic Security to Provide the Most Trusted Customer Engagement Platform”. Twilio. Retrieved 2022-03-02.
- ^ Gagliordi, Natalie. “Twilio to acquire toll-free messaging provider Zipwhip for $850 million”. ZDNet. Retrieved 2021-05-18.
- ^ Harris, Derrick (March 3, 2009). “Why Amazon Will Make or Break Twilio”. Gigaom.
- ^ Dubray, Jean-Jacques (April 25, 2011). “Twilio’s Cloud Architecture Principles”. InfoQ.
- ^ “What is the Twilio Markup Language (TwiML)?”. Twilio. Retrieved 2022-01-25.
- ^ “Twilio Releases OpenVBX, An Open Source Google Voice For Businesses”. TechCrunch. 2010-06-15. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
- ^ Catacchio, Chad (July 21, 2010). “Twilio open-sources Stashboard, an API monitoring dashboard”. The Next Web.
- ^ “Making a Local Web Server Public with Localtunnel”. Twilio. 2011-06-06. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
- ^ “flask-restful/flask-restful”. Github. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
- ^ “twilio/shadow”. Github. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
- ^ “twilio/BankersBox”. Github. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
English
Afrikaans
Albanian
Amharic
Arabic
Armenian
Azerbaijani
Basque
Belarusian
Bengali
Bosnian
Bulgarian
Catalan
Cebuano
Chichewa
Chinese (Simplified)
Chinese (Traditional)
Corsican
Croatian
Czech
Danish
Dutch
Esperanto
Estonian
Filipino
Finnish
French
Frisian
Galician
Georgian
German
Greek
Gujarati
Haitian Creole
Hausa
Hawaiian
Hebrew
Hindi
Hmong
Hungarian
Icelandic
Igbo
Indonesian
Irish
Italian
Japanese
Javanese
Kannada
Kazakh
Khmer
Korean
Kurdish (Kurmanji)
Kyrgyz
Lao
Latin
Latvian
Lithuanian
Luxembourgish
Macedonian
Malagasy
Malay
Malayalam
Maltese
Maori
Marathi
Mongolian
Myanmar (Burmese)
Nepali
Norwegian
Pashto
Persian
Polish
Portuguese
Punjabi
Romanian
Russian
Samoan
Scottish Gaelic
Serbian
Sesotho
Shona
Sindhi
Sinhala
Slovak
Slovenian
Somali
Spanish
Sudanese
Swahili
Swedish
Tajik
Tamil
Telugu
Thai
Turkish
Ukrainian
Urdu
Uzbek
Vietnamese
Welsh
Xhosa
Yiddish
Yoruba
Zulu
