Premium

Infobip Becomes A Billion Dollar Company Raising $200 Million In Private Capital

Infobip, an international telecommunications company, has raised over $200 million from private equity firm One Equity. This deal represents the company’s first external round of funding. With this investment, Infobip is now valued at $1 billion, becoming the first company in the Republic of Croatia to transform from a privately-owned start up to a billion dollar institutionally-funded company. Infobip now hopes to expand to the United States and with potential new acquisitions, it aims to compete with San Francisco-based Twilio (TWLO.N).

Founded in 2006, Infobip now has headquarters in London and offices in several major cities around the world. They are primarily an IT and telecommunications company that uses a full-stack Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) with private cloud infrastructure and zero-hop connectivity to telecoms globally. They enable businesses to communicate more efficiently with their customers through text messages, third-party apps such as WhatsApp, voice notes, email, RCS, Live Chat, Facebook Messenger, and LINE.

Through their omnichannel platform, businesses can identify, authenticate, secure, and provide contact center solutions so they can streamline consumer communication in a fast and reliable way. Infobip boasts global scale customers such as Uber, Costco, and Unilever. They can reach over seven billion mobile devices in over 190 countries with over 600 direct-to-carrier connections. They are one of the world’s largest providers of A2P SMS services, and are a member of GSM Association along with other trade groups like Mobile Ecosystem Forum, Mobile Marketing Association, and Mobey Forum. Infobip holds the PCI DSS certification, meaning they are compliant with the systems they use for card payments and handling of sensitive financial information. In 2014, they invested €1.8 million ($2.1 million) into infrastructure, security, and data protection.

Infobip generated $710 million in revenue in 2019, making a 38% profit over the last year. The novel coronavirus pandemic led to a 20% spike in SMS volumes between February and April as businesses turned to virtual means of communication with their customers during lockdown, which Infobip supplied.

Infobip will now focus on expanding its business, and is considering an initial public offering in the United States at a later date. Other CPaaS will grow from $3.3 billion in 2018 to $17.2 billion by 2023, according to forecasts made by market research firm International Data Corporation (IDC). Infobip hopes to see a similar growth rate.