April 18, 2024

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American-Korean startup SendBird said on Feb. 19 it has raised US$52 million in series B round funding to further advance its customizable chat and messaging API service for mobile and web applications.

San Francisco-based ICONIQ Capital led the fundraising, which was also joined by existing investors such as Shasta Ventures, August Capital, Y Combinator and Funders Club. 

Courtesy of SendBird

The new round of funding -- following a US$16 million series A funding in December 2017 -- is meant to advance its chat API product “with extended capabilities that go above and beyond simple text messaging,” said SendBird CEO John Kim.

The firm has also announced that it named ICONIQ Capital General Partner Matthew Jacobson as a new member of its board of directors.

“We believe in the powerful trends of messaging and chat as the modern way customers want to communicate,” Jacobson said in a release.

“SendBird’s market leadership as the most complete messaging platform allows developers and businesses to transform the way customers connect within their applications.”

The San Mateo-based startup has provided developers with APIs and software development kits that help build enterprise messaging and chat services into their applications. It has targeted corporate clients and recently announced a number of new customers, including NBA, Yahoo! Sports, Glu Mobile, Accolade, Dream11, and Zepeto. This adds to existing customers across the globe, including ones in Korea such as Kookmin Bank, LG Uplus and SSG. The messaging activity through its API has risen over 100 times over the past two years, according to SendBird.

The startup has also obtained enterprise-grade security and privacy certifications for its messenger service by completing ISO27001, HIPAA and SOC2.

By Son Ji-hyoung (consnow@heraldcorp.com)