Twilio Raises $12 Million For Powerful Telephony API

Startup Twilio has raised $12 million in Series B funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners, and including Union Square Ventures, 500 Startups, and several prominent angel investors. Twilio previously raised $4 million in Series A and seed funding.

Twilio creates a powerful API for phone services that allows developers to quickly integrate telephony functionality into their apps.

The Twilio service allows developers to integrate common phone actions (like placing calls or playing back a recording) using a small set of basic API commands. Building basic projects, like this Rick Roll app, takes only a few lines of code, though developers can create far more advanced applications. In fact, Twilio’s customers include Cheetos, Earth911, Tumblr, Sony Music, GroupMe, TextSlide, and FastSociety. Currently, Twilio is now serving nearly 20,000 developers and has increased the number of developers on the platform 5x since the beginning of the year.

The company recently slashed its prices, launched a Google Voice for businesses, and launched the Twilio Micro Fund for developers building off the platform.

Twilio plans to use the new funding for product development and to hire additional staff in sales, marketing,
and engineering.