The customer engagement software provider’s Twilio Ventures unit is the latest SaaS-focused corporate VC fund, following recent initiatives by Hubspot and Zoom.
US-based enterprise communication platform operator Twilio formally launched a $50m corporate venture capital (CVC) vehicle called Twilio Ventures yesterday.
Founded in 2008, Twilio has built a communication-oriented application programming interface (API) tool that enables developers to design and customise in-house voice, text, chat, video and email-based platforms.
The company had been backed by investors including e-commerce and cloud technology group Amazon and enterprise software provider Salesforce before it went public in 2016. The corporates also target investments in software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies through subsidiaries Alexa Fund and Salesforce Ventures respectively.
Video conferencing platform developer Zoom and customer relationship management (CRM) software provider Hubspot have formed their own strategic investment vehicles, Zoom Apps Fund and Hubspot Ventures, in recent months to partner SaaS entrepreneurs.
Human resources and finance management technology provider Workday has had a CVC scheme in place since 2018 dubbed Workday Ventures, while identity management…
