Marketing email company SendGrid raises $131 million after pricing its IPO at $16

SendGrid, the Denver-based marketing email company, raised $131 million after pricing its IPO at $16, above the expected range of $13.50 to $15.50. The company also upsized its IPO, selling 8.2 million shares, instead of 7.7 million.

The company begins trading Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange, under the ticker, “SEND.”

SendGrid helps businesses send marketing emails. It says in its IPO filing that it has processed more than “one trillion emails.”

Revenue for 2016 was $79.9 million, compared with $58.5 million in 2015 and $42.3 million the year before. The business is unprofitable, losing $3.9 million last year, compared to $5.9 million in 2015.

According to the “risk factors” section of the IPO filing, SendGrid warns that “if we are unable to maintain consistent revenue or revenue growth, our stock price could be volatile or decline, and we may not achieve or maintain profitability.”

SendGrid says it competes with SparkPost, MailChimp and divisions of Amazon, Oracle and Salesforce.

The company raised at least $80 million in venture funding, dating back to 2009. The largest shareholders prior to the IPO were Foundry Group, Bessemer Venture Partners, Highway 12 Ventures and Bain Capital Ventures. SendGrid got its start in a Techstars accelerator.

Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan managed the IPO.