- Leading omnichannel cloud communications platform MessageBird announced recently that it raised $200 million in Series C funding at a $3 billion valuation
Leading omnichannel cloud communications platform MessageBird announced recently that it raised $200 million in Series C funding at a $3 billion valuation led by Spark Capital with participation from Bonnier, Glynn Capital, LGT Lightstone, Longbow, Mousse Partners, and New View Capital. Existing investors Accel, Atomico, and Y-Combinator also joined the round. And in connection with the funding, Spark Capital General Partner Will Reed will join MessageBird’s board.
During the lockdown, the funding round comes on the back of a global surge of demand for a wider range of messaging-first customer communication tools across a wider range of channels are global businesses are struggling to cope with the pivot from physical in-store and call center based customer service to a fully remote workforce and online-only sales. And this accelerated MessageBird’s evolution from a purely Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) company to the world’s first and only Omnichannel Platform as a Service (OPaaS) company. This funding round will be used to triple the size of MessageBird’s global team and further expand into its core markets in Europe, Asia, and Latin America as the company officially launches a “Work Anywhere” policy.
A true omnichannel experience is about shifting customer engagement away from the inefficient channels of email and voice to more dynamic messaging channels. And this requires products for both businesses and consumers to complete the circle of having unified context around every interaction. This is possible due to MessageBird’s suite of products including:
1.) Inbox – Free omnichannel customer support and engagement, Inbox enables businesses anywhere in the world to communicate and share rich media with any customer instantly across WhatsApp, SMS, Voice, Messenger, WeChat, Google Business Messaging, Line, and Telegram. And incoming messages across every channel grouped into a single customer thread for easy ticketing and response.
2.) Omnichannel Chat Widget – Turns static pages into dynamic conversations, enabling customers to communicate with your teams on your homepage, in your app, on live chat, or any messaging service (WhatsApp, Messenger, WeChat, SMS, and more).
3.) Flow Builder — Flow Builder is an RPA platform for business messaging, Flow Builder enables any business to also build bespoke omnichannel experiences
And MessageBird is the only platform with preferred supplier relationships with all the major messaging platforms, thus enabling customers anywhere in the world to communicate and share rich media with any business instantly
One-third of Messagebird’s customers have now transitioned to using omnichannel cloud communications via their Flow Builder, Inbox, or Omnichannel Widget products. And MessageBird is trusted by over 15,000 customers from established brands like Lufthansa Airlines, Heineken, Hugo Boss, Rituals Cosmetics, and SAP as well rapidly-growing disruptors such as Uber, Glovo, HelloFresh, and Deliveroo.
KEY QUOTES:
“I just want to live in a world where I can text with a business and never get stuck waiting on hold again. MessageBird has pioneered OPaaS (Omnichannel Platform as a Service) based on the idea that global companies should have zero-friction communication with their customers anywhere in the world and on any channel they prefer. This latest round is validation that there is pent up demand from customers all over the world who also want traditional businesses to move into this brave new messaging-first omnichannel world and we have the leading product on the market to help them do just that.”
— Robert Vis, MessageBird Founder & CEO
“As consumers increasingly demand that businesses talk to them in the apps that they prefer, businesses are finally being forced to adopt omnichannel strategies at scale. Robert and the MessageBird team have built the best platform to engage any customer on any channel, globally – along with a suite of software products that enhance and automate these interactions – enabling businesses to stand out in the new messaging-first world.”
— Will Reed, General Partner at Spark Capital
