MessageBird Acquires US-based SparkPost for $600 Million, extends Series C and raises $1 Billioon to become world’s largest Omnichannel provider

By AIT News Desk On Apr 28, 2021

Firm expands presence into US market and strengthens leadership position — adding five trillion b2c interactions per year
Deal sees some of America’s biggest brands join MessageBird’s customer portfolio, including Disney, Zillow, PayPal, The New York Times, Adobe, LinkedIn, Pinterest, JP Morgan and others
Combined company will serve more than 25,000 customers, with 700 employees and have a run-rate of over $500 million
Deal becomes Europe’s largest ever Series C round, and the second largest on either side of the Atlantic

MessageBird, the world’s leading global omnichannel communication platform, announces it has entered into definitive documentation to acquire US based SparkPost, the world’s largest, first and only predictive email intelligence platform. The deal values SparkPost at $600 million, and the transaction is expected to close in Q2 following receipt of customary regulatory approvals and satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

The acquisition represents another important step for MessageBird in building a global omnichannel platform to make communicating with a business as easy and natural as talking to your friends.

“The future of communications isn’t siloed — it’s omnichannel,” said Robert Vis, CEO of MessageBird. “Our acquisition of SparkPost will further strengthen our ability to serve customers through email as a powerful value channel, and with the most contextual, relevant information. We’re also enthusiastic to expand our global business into the US market and leverage the acquisition as a logical and exciting next step in our mission to be the leading platform of choice for businesses to communicate with their customers on any channel, globally.”

“By joining forces with MessageBird, we will be able to bring broader, deeper value to all of our customers through any digital communications channel,” said Rich Harris, CEO of SparkPost. “Our companies are a great cultural fit, having both built teams that pride themselves on serving the enterprise and helping customers craft compelling, flexible solutions to challenging business problems.”

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“Eurazeo is proud to back Robert and the team,” said Nathalie Kornhoff-Brüls, Managing Director at Eurazeo Growth. “MessageBird continues to revolutionise communication between businesses and their customers with an uncompromising focus on quality. With the success of the new Inbox and workflow automation tools and now the acquisition of SparkPost, we see MessageBird at an inflection point, further strengthening its position as the world’s leading omnichannel platform-as-a-service.”

MessageBird’s market-leading platform allows businesses to communicate seamlessly with customers on the channels they use every day. Options for customers include out-of-the-box “lego blocks” solutions – such as customer service-focussed Inbox, marcomms tool Campaign Builder, and Video for physical to digital – as well as a full API suite for developer teams.

Channels that customers can access via the platform already include Live-chat, Video, SMS, WhatsApp, Instagram, Google Business Messages, Apple Business Chat, Voice, Messenger, WeChat, RCS, Line, and Telegram. Globally, email remains the largest business communication channel by volume, and this acquisition will bring the industry’s most trusted email sending and deliverability platform into this already-extensive suite.

MessageBird’s extended $1bn Series C now becomes the largest Series C round in Europe to date and second largest on either side of the Atlantic. The transaction was financed by Eurazeo, Tiger Global, Owl Rock, and funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, with participation from all existing investors. Nathalie Kornhoff-Brüls from Eurazeo will also join the MessageBird board.