Twilio Set To Acquire Cloud Customer Data Startup Segment For $3.2 Billion
With cloud companies flourishing throughout the pandemic, among the classification’s recent public-company success stories is set to make a splash by investing billions to obtain one of its up-and-comers.
Cloud interactions service Twilio has agreed to get the consumer data infrastructure business Section for $3.2 billion, two sources inform Forbes. The offer which was not yet finalized since Friday afternoon is expected to be a minimum of partly based on Twilio stock.
Sector and its CEO Peter Reinhardt didn’t react to requests for comment. A Twilio spokesperson said the business couldn’t comment “on any reports or speculation.”
Twilio, which trades at a market capitalization of more than $45 billion, went public in June 2016 on the strength of communications facilities that permits organizations to reach their clients through text, voice, and video calls. The business counts the similarity the American Red Cross, delivery unicorn Deliveroo and bank ING as customers.
A fellow San Francisco-based business, Segment was established in 2012 and appeared at No. 26 on this year’s Cloud 100 list of the world’s leading private cloud companies. The company had most recently raised $175 million in a Series D round led by Accel and GV announced in April 2019 at a reported $ 1.5 billion appraisal. Accel did not react to ask for a remark. A GV spokesperson said the firm wouldn’t comment on “rumors or speculation.”
A section had been understood to be available to acquisition offers just recently, a third source informed Forbes. The company, which appears to have been among Covid-19’s innovation winners, has obvious overlap with Twilio through its software tools, which also help clients get in touch with their client base. The sector said in September it dealt with more than 20,000 businesses including Intuit, FOX, and Levi’s, employing more than 550 individuals.
Segment counts four cofounders: Reinhardt, Ian Storm Taylor, Calvin French-Owen, and Ilya Volodarsky, the company’s president. Other financiers besides Accel and GV consist of start-up accelerator Y Combinator, in which Sector took part in 2011, Thrive Capital, Kleiner Perkins, and Meritech Capital Partners. A section had raised more than $283 million to date, per industry information supplier PitchBook.
The acquisition comes almost two years to the date after Twilio revealed it would obtain API service provider SendGrid for $2 billion in stock. By the time the deal closed in January 2019, with the aid of a fateful breakfast burrito, that value had to do with $3 billion. Twilio shares are up about 146% because then, as Twilio has proven a strong entertainer on the general public markets.
