A screenshot of the analyics page provided by SendGrid
(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Email delivery platform SendGrid announced on Tuesday that it has raised a $21 million Series B round from Bessemer Venture Partners, and has partnered with Windows Azure to offer its email infrastructure to Windows Azure customers.
According to a press release, existing investors Foundry Group, Highway 12 ventures, SoftTechVC, 500 Startups and Bullet Time Ventures also participated.
Founded in 2009, SendGrid is used by 40,000 publishers and has sent 26 billion emails in total across 150 countries. Its platform ensures transactional email reaches inboxes and provides analytics to publishers.
SendGrid says it will use the capital to hire more people. At the moment SendGrid employs 70 people.
Its last round was a $5 million Series A in April 2010.
In a separate press release, SendGrid says Windows Azure, Microsoft’s enterprise-grade cloud platform, will bring its email infrastructure to customers and include a free package, with 25,000 emails per month, as part of the initial sign-up.
Companies and web developers use the Windows Azure platform to build and deliver web applications. According to SendGrid, many of the applications rely on transactional email to confirm order purchases, send updates and notifications and confirm account details. With SendGrid, developers can avoid the complexity of maintaining a proprietary transactional email solution.
“Windows Azure customers need a transactional email delivery system that they can integrate with their applications,” Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president, Windows Azure Application Platform, at Microsoft said in a statement. “As part of the Windows Azure partner ecosystem, SendGrid can help customers by providing the email infrastructure and tools to get their transactional emails to the inbox, while managing their applications entirely within the Windows Azure environment.”
Web hosts have also partnered with SendGrid to deliver email. SoftLayer used SendGrid’s infrastructure to launch its SoftLayer Email Delivery Service in June 2011.
“Even in the era of the social web, email remains the bedrock communications channel, with millions of web applications relying on it to reach and retain their customers,” Jim Franklin, CEO, SendGrid said in a statement. “Our availability within the Windows Azure cloud ecosystem makes it even easier for developers to migrate their transactional email infrastructure to the cloud and focus on their core product offerings.”
About Nicole Henderson
Nicole Henderson writes full-time for the Web Host Industry Review where she covers daily news and features online, as well as in print. She has a bachelor of journalism from Ryerson University in Toronto, and has been writing for the WHIR since September 2010. You can find her on Twitter @NicoleHenderson.
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