Zipwhip, a Seattle-based leading provider of texting for businesses, has raised $51.5 million in Series D growth round led by Goldman Sachs Private Capital Investing group. OpenView, M12, and Voyager Capital also participated in this round.
Known for establishing carrier connections between wireless and landline operators several years ago, Zipwhip will continue its path to one day text-enable more than 200 million business phone numbers in North America. So far, Zipwhip has already text-enabled 3.3 million business phone numbers. This achievement helped the company hit a year-over-year revenue growth of more than 80%.
“Zipwhip is the definition of a ten-year overnight success. Over the last decade, we’ve grown, evolved, then grown some more as we carve out our place as the definitive leader of texting for business,” said Zipwhip co-founder and CEO John Lauer in a statement. “This funding allows us to continue to evolve and expand our product suite, reach new customers in new industries and educate the country – and the world – about the power of texting.”
Zipwhip will be using the funding to support aggressive product development and expansion strategy. And the company is going to substantially grow its engineering and leadership teams.
In conjunction with this funding round, Goldman Sachs’ Private Capital Investing group VP Matthew Dorr is joining Zipwhip’s board of directors. “Zipwhip sits at the powerful intersection of a huge addressable market, a proven history in industry innovation and an agile SaaS-based approach that will allow the company to grow and evolve for the foreseeable future,” added Dorr.
And Goldman Sachs’ Private Capital Investing head Hillel Moerman also pointed out that they are looking forward to working with Zipwhip’s leadership team “as they meet the growing demand for a better way for businesses and consumers to communicate.”
There are now more than 100 enterprise organizations that rely on Zipwhip to more effectively communicate with customers. And this funding round will allow Zipwhip to introduce new enterprise-grade software and API capabilities. Zipwhip’s customers include over 2,000 insurance agencies, nearly 150 pro sports teams, nearly 1,000 staffing agencies, and 125 major franchise brands.
Zipwhip made several key hires last year as well. For example, Scott Heimes joined Zipwhip as CMO from SendGrid. Bob Chamberlain, the former CFO of Big Fish Games and PopCap Games, was named as CFO at Zipwhip. Mashery co-founder and VP of Human Resources Kirsten Spoljaric was named as SVP of People at Zipwhip. Plus telecommunications veterans Alison Billings and Paul Wheeler were hired to expand carrier relationships and partnerships in the U.S. and Canada.
