SendBird raises $16M for chat and messaging APIs

SendBird, a start-up based in Redwood City, California with R&D in Seoul, Korea, raised $16 million in Series A funding for its API and SDK for in-app chat and messaging.

SendBird said its API is now powering chat for over 6,500 applications in 153 countries globally. It can support over a million concurrent users for each application.

The funding round was led by Shasta Ventures and August Capital with participation from existing investors at Y Combinator and FundersClub.

"It's our mission to digitize human interactions for businesses," said John S. Kim, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, "With the new round of financing, we can accelerate our plan to help companies rapidly increase the engagement and retention of their users by enabling real-time conversation with our chat API."