Sendbird was founded in 2013 by chief executive Kim Dong-shin when he launched the childcare community app Smile Family. Upon launching the service, Kim noticed that messaging apps showed a strong growth trend, which prompted him to set up a chat service and sell it to various companies.
Since its establishment, the company has fared well. In 2016, Sendbird was added to the list of startup accelerator Y Combinator's top companies lineup, which boosted its market presence. Also, the company's MAU has surged threefold since 2019 and Sendbird currently holds the title as the world’s leading B2B messaging service provider.
Last April, the company acquired LinearHub, the developer of enterprise video conference platform Roundee, to expand the scope of its operations from solely chat API to include audio and visual call APIs.
Sendbird has raised a total of $220 million in funding. The company completed its Series A and Series B rounds in 2017 and 2019, respectively. Its headquarters is based in Silicon Valley, with offices in New York, London and Singapore.
Write to Jong-woo Kim at jongwoo@hankyung.com
Danbee Lee edited this article.
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