SendBird, a provider of chat API and messaging SDK for in-app chat and messaging, raised USD 16 million during its Series A round led by Shasta Ventures and August Capital. Existing investors Y Combinator and FundersClub also participated in the round.
SendBird was launched in 2015 in Korea by co-founders John S. Kim, Brandon Jeon, Harry Kim, and Forest Lee. It has since moved its headquarters to Silicon Valley while retaining its research and development office and Asia-Pacific branch in Seoul, South Korea.
SendBird now powers chats for over 6,500 applications in 153 countries globally. It can support over a million concurrent users on each application, making it the most powerful chat API available. SendBird’s top customers include GO-JEK, Nexon, Ticket Monster, SSG, Kookmin Bank, and Healthline.
“It’s our mission to digitize human interactions for businesses,” said John S. Kim, CEO and co-founder. “With the new round of financing, we can accelerate our plan to help companies rapidly increase their engagement with and retention of users by enabling real-time conversations with our chat API.”
Doug Pepper, Managing Director at Shasta Ventures, and Villi Iltchev, Partner at August Capital, will join SendBird’s Board of Directors.
(Top photo from Sendbird)
This article, entitled “Y Combinator-backed Chat API startup SendBird raises USD 16 M led by Shasta Ventures”, was written in Korean by Platum, edited by AllTechAsia.