The race to provide telecom services to developers of every stripe has a number of large, well-capitalized participants. New and quickly growing among the better-known names is Sinch, a company that was spun out of Rebtel just over 10 months ago. According to the firm, Sinch is now generating revenue at a $60 million run rate.
Sinch started with certain advantages that are worth noting. It launched last May with $12 million in funding and its former corporate parent Rebtel as a customer. That doesn’t make its revenue growth less noteworthy, however.
For context, Twilio, another company that provides voice and texting capabilities to developers, is currently on a path toward an IPO. Its revenue? It was recently reported that Twilio was generating revenue on a $100 million run rate. Another firm in the space, Nexmo, hit a $72 million run rate in September of last year. That puts Sinch in third place, but given its comparative youth, that’s hardly unflattering.
They declined to comment on what portion of its revenues come from its corporate progenitor, and declined to speculate on where its revenues might be in one and three years from today.
Sinch becomes slightly more notable in the growth context because, simply due to its youth, its product history is short compared to its revenue. For example, Sinch only rolled out its global SMS API last December, as TechCrunch reported. At that time, TechCrunch also wrote that the company had picked up 6,000 developer sign-ups through that date.
Like most technology companies with a pulse, Sinch tells TechCrunch it is currently raising capital. In response to an emailed query regarding profitability, Sinch told this publication that it has a “low burn” that is in decline as it expands its customer base. Why is the firm raising capital? As you expected, the answer is growth. Or, implicitly, faster growth.
Sinch focuses on providing tools for mobile developers in particular. To that end, the company recently released “Flash Call User Verification,” which lets users confirm their phone numbers without retyping PINs. In response to a question, Sinch called the response to the new feature “incredible.” The company also confirmed that the new product has similar margins to its other offerings. Revenue growth derived from the product will therefore not dilute the company’s path to eventual profitability.
Akin to the cloud storage space, and the mobile device management market, there is lots of capital and competition in the developer-telecom game. What comes next are the usual fun questions: Who will spike their cap table by raising at too high a valuation, and how long until we see the first S-1 from the group?