Twilio Pursues IPO

Since its founding in 2008, Twilio has been about the API. Now it's about the IPO, too.

In a press statement issued yesterday, the popular communications API provider laid bare its plans to go public with the announcement that it has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an initial public offering. According to published reports, Twilio has said it intends to raise as much as $100 million in the IPO, although the filing specified neither the number of shares it would offer nor the price.

News of the proposed IPO set tech industry watchers abuzz. Tech company IPOs have been few and far between this year -- with only four to date, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. But many eyes have long been on Twilio, which months ago indicated its IPO inclination.

Twilio, though valued at $1 billion, is not profitable. As revealed in the SEC filing, the company had net losses of nearly $27 million in 2013 and 2014. In 2015, revenue reached nearly $167 million, but net loss tallied $35.5 million. The loss trend has continued into 2016, with Twilio noting $6.5 million in net loss for the three months ended March 31.

Twilio, however, is everybody's darling in the cloud-based, software-centric world of today. Twilio is widely credited for kick-starting the API movement in communications, and its first-mover advantage shows in the number and variety of products in its API portfolio, which includes two APIs introduced earlier this week: Twilio Programmable Wireless, for Internet of Things and enterprise connectivity to the cellular network; and Twilio Notify, which enables businesses to orchestrate notifications across multiple channels and applications (read related articles, "Twilio Dives into IoT, Signals the Future of Comms" and "Orchestrating Notifications with Twilio"). It also shows in the marquee names on its customer list, including Facebook, Uber, and Twitter.

As of March 31, Twilio had more than 28,000 active customer accounts and 900,000 developer accounts registered on the company's platform, and at its Signal conference this week, Twilio maintained it has crossed the 1 million developers line.

Here at No Jitter and at Enterprise Connect, we know that interest in the programmatic control enabled by communications API represents an exciting future for enterprise communications. But we'll have to see how the street values it.

Should the SEC sign off on the IPO and Twilio proceed with the plan, Twilio shares would trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TWLO.

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