e.ventures congratulates the Segment team on today’s announcement of its $3.2B acquisition by Twilio (NYSE: TWLO). The transaction will close upon completion of normal closing conditions including antitrust review.
e.ventures Founding Partner, Tom Gieselmann led Segment’s Seed with $1M from e.ventures IV in June 2013 and participated in subsequent rounds, and e.ventures Growth II followed on in the February 2019 Series D led by Meritech. e.ventures proudly celebrates Segment alongside co-investors Accel, GV, Sapphire Ventures, Y Combinator and Y-Combinator Continuity, Kleiner Perkins, Meritech Capital, and Thrive Capital.
Segment was sourced by Tom in February 2013 through an introduction to Segment’s CEO and Founder, Peter Reinhardt from Munchery co-founder, Conrad Chu (now e.ventures’ CTO). Conrad was one of Segment’s first users, and understood the significant pain-point that the company’s “main hose for data” solved.
Even nascent, Segment’s double network effects drove Tom’s interest from the beginning and ultimately has fueled Segment’s efficient and rapidly scaling growth. Not only does Segment get more powerful for the customer when all of their analytics providers can be routed through the single Segment channel, but also, the analytics providers sell Segment to their customers to create easy onboarding and a streamlined user experience. The result: a sticky software solution that creates value for all of its partners.
e.ventures is proud to be part of Segment’s growth journey, and added early value by helping Segment sign its first 6-figure contract. That initial customer was Crate and Barrel, a portfolio company of the Otto Group, an e.ventures Limited Partner.
We are excited about the next chapter for Segment and believe Twilio’s vision of building the world’s leading customer engagement platform will allow Segment to continue to provide unique data insights for customers worldwide. Combined with Segment’s streamlined product offering, Twilio will be able to help any business engage customers across every channel in an individualized, timely, and impactful way.
Please join us in congratulating the Segment co-founders, Peter Reinhardt, Calvin French-Owen, Ian Storm Taylor, Ilya Volodarsky and the entire Segment team for building a category-creating company! We wish them well in their next chapter, and trust that the Twilio partnership will continue to add meaningful value for companies across the globe.
Read more about the transaction in the official press release.