Sendbird valuation passes $1 billion with Series C funding

Industry

Published: 07 Apr. 2021, 17:02

Sendbird valuation passes $1 billion with Series C funding

Sendbird logo [YONHAP]

Sendbird, a California-based start-up that offers messaging solutions, announced Wednesday it raised $100 million in Series C funding led by Steadfast Capital Ventures.

Now valued at $1.05 billion, Sendbird is one of 12 so-called unicorns founded in Korea and the first in the business-to-business enterprise software market. The latest round of funds will be used to accelerate its research and development (R&D) efforts and to hire more talent, the company said.

Emergence Capital, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, World Innovation Lab, Iconiq Growth and Tiger Global Management also joined the round.

Founded in Korea in 2013, Sendbird relocated its headquarters to Silicon Valley in 2016. It offers chat, video and other interactive services to many global companies including Reddit, Hinge, Paytm and Delivery Hero. Over 150 million users send over 2.5 billion messages on the Sendbird platform every month, according to the start-up.

“Our customers have been experiencing a very dynamic and competitive business environment,” said Kim Dong-shin, CEO of Sendbird. “One of our core values is endless tenacity for customers and this funding will only strengthen our ability to serve our customers and create value for their businesses.”

BY CHEA SARAH [chea.sarah@joongang.co.kr]