Twilio acquires NEA-backed communications platform provider ValueFirst

ValueFirst, a communications-platform-as-a-service provider, has been acquired by San Francisco-based cloud communications firm Twilio as the latter seeks to deepen its presence in the country. 

The two companies did not disclose financial details of the transaction. 

The acquisition comes nearly a year after Twilio began operations in India. 

Anand Rathi Advisors, the investment banking arm of the Anand Rathi Financial Services group, acted as the exclusive adviser to ValueFirst on the transaction. 

ValueFirst, operated by ValueFirst Digital Media Pvt Ltd, was set up in 2003 by Vishwadeep Bajaj. The Gurugram-based company also has offices in regions and markets including West Asia and Indonesia. 

The firm helps connect businesses with consumers and provides products and solutions that utilise channels including SMS and voice, chatbots, email and over-the-top. 

Sectors it focuses on include education, financial services, fast-moving consumer goods, healthcare, logistics and transport, and retail and e-commerce. 

Investors in the company include NEA, the global venture capital firm. The firm first invested in ValueFirst in 2008, when it committed $6 million (around Rs 30 crore). It then followed this up in 2011 by taking part in a $15.15 million (around Rs 70 crore) round. Per VCCEdge, NEA holds a 31.89% stake in ValueFirst. 

VCCircle has reached out to NEA on the details of ValueFirst’s acquisition by Twilio, and will update this report accordingly. 

ValueFirst had also bought several companies prior to its own acquisition. Some of these include Octane Marketing, Rocket Science Technology, clk2c.com, and Gingersoft Media. It reported consolidated net sales and profits of Rs 469 crore and Rs 13.4 crore, respectively, for the 2018-19 financial year, per VCCEdge.