SMS Texting Startup Zipwhip Lands $9 Million In Funding

Zipwhip, the Seattle startup that enables companies to text customers from the internet, announced Monday (Oct. 17) it raised $9 million in Series B investment led by Voyager Capital.

According to a report, Voyager Capital was joined by Microsoft Ventures, Microsoft’s new formal venture fund. GCI and Inteliquent also participated in the round of fundraising.

Zipwhip’s technology enables companies to text their customers from the internet, desktop computers and smartphones. The company was founded in 2007 and originally targeted consumers but morphed into a business-facing company in 2013. With its technology, hundreds of million of landlines can receive and send text messages, noted the report. Since pivoting into a business-facing company, it has attracted hundreds of clients from industries including insurance, automotive, staffing, fitness, transportation, radio and medical, noted the report. What’s more, the report pointed out the volume facilitated on its platform has increased 300 percent year over year.

“Businesses are late adopters,” Zipwhip CEO John Lauer said in the report. “They don’t want the new thing, and they don’t want to WhatsApp-enable or Facebook Messenger-enable their business. They just want to text-enable because everyone has texting.” The latest round of funding will go to grow the company’s sales team and to develop products. The company said it was on pace to do around $10 million in recurring revenue by the third quarter of 2016.

“We are going through such an amazing growth stage, and the market we are tackling is so massive that it makes sense to raise more money to accelerate growth beyond what we’re already seeing,” Lauer said. The report noted that its growth is a “clear indication that SMS is still an important, and lucrative, messaging platform.”