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Sendbird

Category: Voice / Speech AI

An omnichannel AI agent and communications platform offering APIs and SDKs for chat, voice, video, and AI-powered customer support. Sendbird was founded in 2013. The company is led by John S. Kim. Based in San Mateo, USA. Team size: 201-500. Total funding raised: ~$220M total (all rounds). Latest round: Series C ($100M, Apr 2021 led by Steadfast Financial with SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Emergence Capital participating). Key investors include ICONIQ Capital, Tiger Global Management, Meritech Capital Partners, Steadfast Capital, SoftBank Vision Fund, Y Combinator.

Founded
2013
Headquarters
San Mateo, USA
Team size
201-500
Total funding
~$220M total (all rounds)

Value proposition

To enable businesses to quickly and easily build and embed scalable, reliable, and feature-rich communication experiences (chat, voice, video, AI chatbots) to drive user engagement, retention, and revenue.

Products and solutions

Chat API, Voice API, Video API, AI Chatbot, Sendbird Desk (Customer support and ticketing system), Business Messaging (Omnichannel communication solution), Notifications

Unique value

Sendbird's uniqueness lies in its evolution from a simple chat API to a comprehensive, omnichannel AI agent platform. It focuses on providing conversational, empathetic, and authentic AI agents deployable across various channels, combined with highly scalable and reliable infrastructure handling over 7 billion monthly messages.

Target customer

Developers, product managers, and enterprises seeking to integrate communication features into their applications and websites.

Industries served

E-commerce & Retail, Healthcare, Financial Services, On-demand Services (Delivery & Rideshare), Travel & Hospitality, Gaming, Social Media & Online Communities

Technology advantage

Sendbird offers a robust developer-friendly platform with full suite communication tools (APIs, SDKs, UIKits) enabling rapid development and integration, plus enterprise-grade security, compliance, and scalable proven infrastructure. Recently focusing on 'Agentic AI' gives it a strong edge in customer service automation.

How they differentiate

Sendbird differentiates by offering a comprehensive suite of communication tools including chat, voice, and video APIs with strong scalability and reliability for large enterprises, plus an increasing focus on generative AI-powered chatbots and advanced analytics for better engagement and support.

Main competitors

Twilio, Stream, CometChat

Key partnerships

Amazon Web Services (AWS): Strategic collaboration to accelerate agentic AI adoption and leverage cloud infrastructure., Anthropic: Partnership to use Claude AI model for advanced AI customer support agents improving accuracy and reducing hallucinations., Salesforce: Key technology partner enabling integration within Salesforce ecosystem., MoEngage: Partner integration enhancing customer engagement through coordinated in-app notifications and messaging.

Notable customers

Hinge, Paytm, Rakuten, Reddit, DoorDash, LG

Major milestones

Became a unicorn company with valuation over $1 billion after Series C funding round in 2021., Graduated from Y Combinator Winter 2016 batch., Expanded product offerings to include voice and video APIs and AI-powered chatbot solutions.

Growth metrics

Powers over 7 billion messages per month for more than 4,000 apps and has reached over 300 million monthly active users.

Market positioning

Market leader in the Communication Platform as a Service (CPaaS) industry especially for in-app messaging, serving high-growth startups and large enterprises requiring robust, scalable, and feature-rich communication solutions.

Geographic focus

Global presence with headquarters in San Mateo, USA, significant presence in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific regions serving diverse international clients.

Patents and IP

Specific patent information is not publicly available. Licensing agreements imply the existence of patents, but details are not disclosed.

About John S. Kim

Previously Co-Founder and CEO of Paprika Lab, a mobile game company acquired by GREE. Former professional gamer, ranked as Korea's #1 champion in Unreal Tournament.

Official website: