Twilio
A cloud communications and customer-engagement platform that provides programmable messaging, voice, email, identity, data, and contact-center services.
Last updated August 26, 2026
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Overview
Twilio is an American cloud communications company whose software and application programming interfaces allow developers and businesses to add communications and customer-engagement capabilities to their own products. Its core services enable applications to send and receive text messages, place and handle telephone calls, deliver email, support video and chat interactions, verify user identities, and manage customer data. Rather than requiring customers to build telecommunications infrastructure themselves, Twilio provides cloud-hosted services, software tools, phone numbers, messaging routes, developer libraries, and webhooks that connect communications events to application logic. The company was founded in 2008 by Jeff Lawson, Evan Cooke, and John Wolthuis, initially operating between Seattle and San Francisco. It launched its cloud voice API in November 2008 and subsequently expanded into text messaging, short codes, video, contact-center technology, authentication, email, customer data, and security. Its developer-oriented model helped make communications capabilities available to startups and software teams that previously needed carrier relationships and specialized telecom engineering. Twilio became associated with platform evangelism, documentation, self-service onboarding, hackathons, and usage-based pricing, with GroupMe serving as an early example of an application built using Twilio messaging. The business broadened significantly through acquisitions. Authy added consumer and developer-focused two-factor authentication; SendGrid added transactional and marketing email; Segment added customer-data collection and activation; and Zipwhip expanded toll-free messaging. Other acquisitions and technology purchases added speech analytics, WebRTC media infrastructure, virtual mobile-network capabilities, Internet-of-Things connectivity, data security, and identity functionality. These moves shifted Twilio from a narrow communications API provider toward a wider customer-engagement and communications platform. Twilio went public on the New York Stock Exchange in June 2016. Its growth later brought organizational and strategic pressure, including workforce reductions in 2022, 2023, and 2024, and a restructuring into Communications and Data & Applications business units. The company also faced security incidents involving employee-targeted phishing and the Authy service, as well as scrutiny over how its services were used by third-party platforms. Jeff Lawson left the chief executive role and Twilio's board in January 2024, when Khozema Shipchandler became chief executive. Twilio remains an active global enterprise-software provider serving developers, businesses, contact centers, marketers, and digital products.
History
Twilio was established in 2008 by Jeff Lawson, Evan Cooke, and John Wolthuis, graduates of the University of Michigan. The company began with operations in Seattle and San Francisco and pursued a developer-oriented approach to telecommunications. Its initial product, released in November 2008, was a cloud voice API that let software applications place and receive telephone calls without directly operating carrier infrastructure. Twilio followed with a text-messaging API in February 2010 and public-beta SMS short codes in 2011. The company's early growth was supported by venture investors including Mitch Kapor, Founders Fund, K9 Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Fidelity, T. Rowe Price, Altimeter Capital, Arrowpoint Partners, Amazon, and Salesforce. Twilio used self-service tools, documentation, developer communities, technical evangelism, and startup events to encourage software developers to build communications into their applications. GroupMe, created at a TechCrunch Disrupt hackathon in 2010, became a prominent early example of a service using Twilio messaging. The Twilio Fund, announced by 500 Startups in 2010, also supported startups building on the platform. Twilio expanded its technology base through both product development and acquisitions. OpenVBX provided an open-source interface for configuring call routing, while TwiML supplied a Twilio-specific markup method for describing call and messaging behavior through webhooks. The company acquired Authy in 2015, adding two-factor authentication products, and acquired the team behind Kurento in 2016 to strengthen real-time media capabilities. Beepsend, Ytica, Core Network Dynamics, and Electric Imp added SMS delivery, speech analytics, mobile-network infrastructure, and Internet-of-Things capabilities. The acquisition of SendGrid, announced in 2018 and completed in 2019, brought transactional and marketing email into the portfolio. Segment, acquired in 2020, extended Twilio into customer-data collection and activation. Ionic Security, Zipwhip, and Boku Identity further expanded security, messaging, and identity offerings. Twilio filed for an IPO and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on June 23, 2016. Over time, its scope developed from programmable voice and messaging into a broader customer-engagement platform serving developers, enterprises, marketers, contact centers, and digital-service operators. Its services are hosted on cloud infrastructure and commonly interact with customer applications through APIs, HTTP webhooks, software-development kits, and programmable workflows. The company encountered security, governance, and operational challenges as it grew. In 2021 it ended service links to Parler after disagreements concerning moderation of hate speech and insurrection-related content. In August 2022, an SMS phishing campaign targeting employees enabled unauthorized access to internal systems and affected a limited number of customer accounts. Twilio then announced substantial workforce reductions: 11% in 2022, approximately 17% in 2023, and another reduction in 2023 affecting about 5% of employees. The company divided operations into Communications and Data & Applications units during this period. Jeff Lawson left the CEO role and the board in January 2024, succeeded by Khozema Shipchandler. A later Authy-related incident involved reported exposure of account-associated phone numbers, reinforcing the importance of security controls around identity and authentication services.
- 2024
Leadership transition
[4]Khozema Shipchandler became CEO after Jeff Lawson stepped down from the role and the board.
- 2022
Security breach and first major workforce reduction
[3]Twilio disclosed an employee-targeted phishing incident and announced an 11% workforce reduction.
- 2020
Segment acquired
[1]Twilio acquired Segment to strengthen customer-data collection, management, and activation.
- 2019
SendGrid merger completed
[1]Twilio completed its combination with SendGrid, adding large-scale transactional and marketing email.
- 2016
Initial public offering
[1]Twilio began trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
- 2015
Authy acquired
[1]Twilio acquired Authy, expanding into two-factor authentication for users, developers, and enterprises.
- 2010
Text messaging API introduced
[1]Twilio added programmable SMS and later made SMS short codes available in public beta.
- 2008
Twilio is founded and launches cloud voice
[1]Jeff Lawson, Evan Cooke, and John Wolthuis founded Twilio, which released its hosted voice API later that year.
Products and positioning
A developer-first, programmable cloud platform for embedding communications, identity, customer data, and engagement workflows into software products.
Messaging API · 2010
Twilio Programmable Messaging
APIs and related tools for sending and receiving SMS and other mobile messages. Businesses use the service for notifications, verification codes, alerts, customer support, marketing, and two-way application conversations.
Voice API · 2008
Twilio Voice
A programmable telephony service that lets applications place, receive, route, record, and manage calls. Developers control call behavior through webhooks, TwiML, APIs, and related software tools.
Video communications
Twilio Video
Real-time video and audio capabilities designed for embedding conferencing, collaboration, telehealth, support, and other interactive experiences into applications.
Email platform · 2019
Twilio SendGrid
An email delivery and engagement platform for transactional messages, campaigns, templates, deliverability management, and email analytics. It became part of Twilio through the SendGrid acquisition.
Customer data platform · 2020
Twilio Segment
Tools for collecting, standardizing, governing, and activating customer data across marketing, analytics, product, and engagement systems. Segment broadened Twilio's role beyond communications infrastructure.
Identity and verification
Twilio Verify
Identity-verification services that support one-time passcodes and other verification workflows through channels such as SMS, voice, and messaging.
Contact center
Twilio Flex
A programmable contact-center platform intended to let organizations configure agent experiences, customer channels, routing, workflows, and integrations rather than rely solely on a fixed contact-center interface.
Authentication
Authy
A two-factor authentication service acquired by Twilio in 2015. Authy provides authentication applications and supporting services for end users, developers, and organizations.
Controversies
2024
Authy account phone-number exposure
Threat actors were reported to have acquired phone numbers associated with more than 33 million Authy users. Twilio stated that authentication tokens and credentials were not exposed.
2022
Employee-targeted phishing breach
An attacker used SMS phishing against Twilio employees to obtain access to internal systems. Twilio said a limited number of customer accounts were affected; Signal later confirmed that its service was among the affected customers.
Marketing campaigns
- 2010Developer evangelism and hackathon outreach
United States · Global developer community
Twilio used technical documentation, developer events, platform evangelism, and hackathons to encourage startups and software teams to build communications features with its APIs. GroupMe's appearance at TechCrunch Disrupt became an early example of this approach.
Outcome. Helped establish Twilio as a developer-first communications platform.
- 2010Twilio Fund
United States · Startup ecosystem
500 Startups announced a micro-fund intended to provide seed financing to startups using Twilio technology.
Outcome. Extended Twilio's developer ecosystem and startup-acquisition strategy.
Brand decisions
2024
Chief executive transitionOtherBackground
After leading Twilio from its founding through its public-market expansion, co-founder Jeff Lawson left the chief executive role.
Action taken
Khozema Shipchandler was appointed CEO, while Lawson also departed the board.
Aftermath
The transition placed day-to-day leadership under a new executive as Twilio continued its focus on communications, data, identity, and customer engagement.
2022
Creation of Communications and Data & Applications unitsStrategyBackground
Twilio undertook a restructuring amid slower growth, workforce reductions, and a broader product portfolio following acquisitions such as Segment.
Action taken
The company organized its activities into Twilio Communications and Twilio Data & Applications.
Aftermath
The structure was intended to sharpen accountability and focus across the communications and customer-data businesses.
2021
Service termination for ParlerStrategyBackground
Twilio provided services connected to Parler, a social-media platform that faced controversy over hate speech and content related to the January 2021 U.S. Capitol attack.
Action taken
Twilio shut down its service links to Parler after Parler did not agree to monitor prohibited hate speech and insurrection-related content.
Aftermath
The decision illustrated the policy and platform-governance risks faced by infrastructure providers whose APIs support third-party applications.
Recent events
Reported
Button announces PostTap SMS[7]
Button announced PostTap SMS, an SMS marketing product powered by Twilio. Button said the product enables enterprise customers to launch an integrated SMS marketing strategy without code integration.
Reported
Pearl introduces improvements to its tutor platform[8]
Pearl introduced improvements to its suite of tutor tools, including a customizable storefront and improved user-management tools; it also described a more robust virtual classroom being developed with Twilio.
Reported
Twilio launches Twilio Live[9]
Twilio launched Twilio Live, a cloud-based platform for embedding live, interactive audio and video streams into applications. The platform was in beta at the time of the report.
Reported
Terazo closes $10+ million funding round[10]
Terazo announced that it had closed a funding round of more than $10 million, led by Tercera with participation from Twilio.
Reported
Twilio announces acquisition of Zipwhip[11]
Twilio and Zipwhip announced that Twilio would acquire Zipwhip for $850 million in cash and stock. The deal was expected to close by the end of 2021.
Reported
Twilio makes Video WebRTC Go generally available[12]
Twilio announced the general availability of Video WebRTC Go, a free video service for adding one-to-one video chats to web and mobile applications, with a monthly bandwidth limit of 25 GB through Twilio relays.
Reported
Electric Imp releases imp006 breakout board[13]
Electric Imp released its imp006 breakout board for prototyping IoT products, with Twilio’s Super SIM pre-installed for global connectivity.
- Unconfirmed
Reported
Twilio acquires Electric Imp[14]
Twilio announced that it had acquired IoT platform Electric Imp a few months before the announcement; the companies did not disclose the acquisition price.
Sources14 sources
- 1Twilioen.wikipedia.org
- 2Twilio official websitetwilio.com
- 3Twilio August 2022 social-engineering attack updatetwilio.com
- 4Twilio leadership transition announcementtwilio.com
- 5Twilio security alerttwilio.com
- 6Creation of Communications and Data & Applications unitstwilio.com
- 7Button宣布推出PostTap SMSprnewswire.com
- 8Pearl推出导师平台改进功能prweb.com
- 9Twilio 推出 Twilio Livebroadcastnow.co.uk
- 10Terazo完成逾1,000万美元融资prnewswire.com
- 11Twilio 宣布收购 Zipwhipcolumbian.com
- 12Twilio正式推出 Video WebRTC Gotechcrunch.com
- 13Electric Imp发布imp006开发板techcrunch.com
- 14Twilio收购Electric Impfinance.yahoo.com
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