Twilio, a US-based platform that enables startups to add cloud-based communication to their products, has set up a $50m fund to invest in those startups, Re/code reported yesterday.
Venture capital firms Bessemer Venture Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Redpoint Ventures, all of which backed Twilio’s $70m series D round in 2013, have teamed up with the company for the fund, which will also offer marketing support and credits towards the use of Twilio.
The fund has already made its first investment, contributing to a $5m series A round raised by conference calling app Speakeasy on Tuesday that also included Bessemer and Salesforce Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of cloud computing platform Salesforce.com.
The fund is considering investments in companies from seed-stage to late-stage rounds.
Twilio secured $100m in its series E round earlier this month, valuing the company at $1.1bn. Investors in that round have not been named. The company’s clients include ride hailing app Uber, which connects customers to drivers through Twilio’s platform.