Thoma Bravo | Press Releases

Sinch acquires Pathwire, the leading email delivery platform, from Thoma Bravo

Written by Thoma Bravo | September 30, 2021

Pathwire’s best-in-class Mailgun and Mailjet products to expand Sinch’s position as a global leader while enhancing the customer experience

Stockholm, Sweden, and San Antonio, TexasSinch AB (publ), a global leader in cloud communications for mobile customer engagement, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Pathwire, the leading cloud-based email delivery platform, including its Mailgun, Mailjet and Email on Acid products for developers and marketers, from Thoma Bravo, a leading software investment firm.

Pathwire provides a best-in-class email deliverability platform for transactional and marketing email. Built to remove the complexities of the world’s most-used digital communications channel, Pathwire ensures that the right messages are delivered to the right person at the right time.

During Thoma Bravo’s ownership, the firm supported the creation of the Pathwire brand, combining the Mailgun and Mailjet products, giving customers access to a broader set of solutions to help them grow and improve their customers’ experience.

The acquisition of Pathwire means that Sinch will become one of the very few, global CPaaS providers that can deliver leading quality at scale across all the main digital communications channels which businesses use to engage with their customers.

“Every form of digital communications has its unique benefits and delivering high quality at scale requires both extensive technical capabilities and deep subject matter expertise,” commented Oscar Werner, Sinch CEO. “Together with Pathwire, we will be able to offer a best-of-breed product set, across messaging, voice and email, that empowers businesses and developers to craft an unmatched, digital, customer experience.”

Businesses turn to cloud-based email service providers to avoid costly in-house solutions and to ensure that each message reaches its recipient as intended. Through its feature-rich email API, email testing tools, and accomplished deliverability services, Pathwire ensures that emails are received with minimum delay, that they are showcased in customers’ prime inbox, and that messages render pixel-perfect on every device and with every email provider. Together with a highly efficient, online go-to-market model, these product strengths have allowed Pathwire to outgrow the competition and deliver consistently high growth and high profitability.

Pathwire’s offering is centered around three core products:

  • Mailgun offers powerful APIs that let developers integrate automated email messages into products and workflows. With unmatched deliverability rates, Mailgun is the preferred choice for developers looking to send, receive and track emails using a cloud-native, scalable infrastructure.
  • Mailjet offers a drag-and-drop email builder and suite of APIs that empower marketers to increase customer engagement and maximize marketing ROI. Its powerful tools cater for the entire life cycle of an email; from design and creativity to testing, deliverability, and analytics.
  • Email on Acid further improves deliverability rates, through an automated pre-deployment checklist, and ensures that every email message renders well across different email providers and devices.

“Sinch and Pathwire are a natural fit: both companies have built their businesses around product excellence, a commitment to positive results for our customers, and a focus on clear, measurable outcomes. I’m proud of what the Pathwire team has accomplished, along with Thoma Bravo’s support and expertise, and I’m tremendously excited about this next step on our growth journey and the many opportunities we can unlock together,” commented Will Conway, Pathwire CEO.

“We are proud of what we accomplished with Will Conway and the Pathwire team over the past few years,” commented Hudson Smith, a Partner at Thoma Bravo. “Together we deployed Thoma Bravo’s extensive operational capabilities to combine Mailgun and Mailjet and create Pathwire, an end-to-end email platform built for growth. Sinch is the right strategic partner to support Pathwire as the company continues transforming digital communications infrastructure and we look forward to following the team’s continued success for many years to come."

Research by Technavio estimates that the worldwide market for email delivery is worth USD 16 billion. More than 60 percent of this amount relates to transactional email, which are delivered in response to an action by an end user, such as booking confirmations, receipts and password resets.

Regulatory approval
Closing of the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including merger-control filing to the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice in the US.

Timeline
The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2021.

Advisors
Moelis & Company UK LLP is acting as financial advisor to Sinch in the transaction, with K&L Gates LLP acting as legal advisor. Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC and William Blair are acting as financial advisors to Pathwire, with Goodwin Procter LLP acting as legal advisor. Kirkland & Ellis LLP is acting as legal advisor to Thoma Bravo.

About Sinch
Sinch brings businesses and people closer with tools enabling personal engagement. Its leading cloud communications platform lets businesses reach every mobile phone on the planet, in seconds or less, through mobile messaging, voice and video. Sinch is a trusted software provider to mobile operators, and its platform powers business-critical communications for many of the world’s largest companies. Sinch has been profitable and fast-growing since its foundation in 2008. It is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, and has local presence in more than 40 countries. Shares are traded at NASDAQ Stockholm: XSTO:SINCH. Visit us at sinch.com.

About Pathwire
Pathwire offers email API technology and intuitive email marketing solutions that empowers companies around the world to solve complex communication problems. Through its Mailgun, Mailjet, and Email on Acid brands, Pathwire delivers over 250 billion emails a year for companies like DHL, Wikipedia, Toast, Lyft, and Microsoft. It provides reliable, cloud-native infrastructure, local expertise, and smart solutions based on machine learning so companies can more easily reach their customers and build connected experiences. Pathwire has employees worldwide including in the UK, Spain, France, Germany, and the US, with a headquarters in San Antonio, Texas. For more information, visit pathwire.com.

About Thoma Bravo
Thoma Bravo is one of the largest private equity firms in the world, with more than $83 billion in assets under management as of June 30, 2021. The firm invests in growth-oriented, innovative companies operating in the software and technology sectors. Leveraging the firm's deep sector expertise and proven strategic and operational capabilities, Thoma Bravo collaborates with its portfolio companies to implement operating best practices, drive growth initiatives and make accretive acquisitions intended to accelerate revenue and earnings. Over the past 20 years, the firm has acquired more than 325 companies representing over $100 billion in enterprise value. The firm has offices in Chicago, Miami and San Francisco. For more information, visit thomabravo.com.

This information is information that Sinch AB (publ) is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the contact person set out above, at 08:30 CEST on September 30, 2021.

Important information
This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements. Such statements are all statements that do not relate to historical facts and include expressions such as "believe", "estimate", "anticipate", "expect", "assume", "predict", "intend", "may", "presuppose", "should" or similar. The forward-looking statements in this release are based on various estimates and assumptions that in several cases are based on additional assumptions. Although Sinch believes these assumptions were reasonable when made, such forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that are difficult or impossible to predict and that are beyond Sinch's control. Such risks, uncertainties and important factors could cause the actual results to differ materially from the results expressly or implicitly indicated in this communication through the forward-looking statements. The information, perceptions and the forward-looking statements in this release apply only as of the date of this release and may change without notice.

This press release is not and does not form a part of any offer for sale of securities. Copies of this communication may not be made in, and may not be distributed or sent into, the United States, Australia, Canada, Japan, South Africa, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore or any other jurisdiction in which distribution of this press release would be unlawful or would require registration or other measures. The distribution of this announcement in other jurisdictions may be restricted by law and persons into whose possession this announcement comes should inform themselves about, and observe, any such restrictions.

The securities referred to in this announcement have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), or under the securities laws of any state or other jurisdiction of the United States and, accordingly, may not be offered or sold in the United States except pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act and in compliance with applicable state securities law. Sinch does not intend to register any part of the directed new share issue in the United States or to conduct a public offering of shares in the United States.

The securities referred to herein have not been and will not be registered under the applicable securities laws of Canada, Japan, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Hong Kong or Singapore and, subject to certain exemptions, may not be offered or sold in or into or for the account or benefit of any person having a registered address in, or located or resident in, Canada, Japan, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Hong Kong or Singapore. There will be no public offering of the securities described herein in Canada, Japan, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Hong Kong or Singapore.

This press release is not a prospectus for purposes of Prospectus Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2017 and its delegated and implemented regulations (the “Prospectus Regulation”) and has not been approved by any regulatory authority in any jurisdiction. Sinch has not authorized any offer to the public of securities in any EEA Member State and no prospectus has been or will be prepared in connection with the directed new share issue. In any EEA Member State, this communication is only addressed to and is only directed at qualified investors in that Member State within the meaning of the Prospectus Regulation.

In the United Kingdom, this document and any other materials in relation to the securities described herein is only being distributed to, and is only directed at, and any investment or investment activity to which this document relates is available only to, and will be engaged in only with, “qualified investors” (within the meaning of the United Kingdom version of the EU Prospectus Regulation (2017/1129/ EU) which is part of United Kingdom law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018) who are (i) persons having professional experience in matters relating to investments who fall within the definition of “investment professionals” in Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (the “Order”); or (ii) high net worth entities falling within Article 49(2)(a) to (d) of the Order (all such persons together being referred to as “relevant persons”). In the United Kingdom, any investment or investment activity to which this communication relates is available only to, and will be engaged in only with, relevant persons. Persons who are not relevant persons should not take any action on the basis of this press release and should not act or rely on it.

Neither Sinch nor any its affiliates directors, officers, employees, agents, affiliates or advisers is under any obligation to update, complete, revise or keep current the information contained in this press release to which it relates or to provide the recipient with access to any additional information that may arise in connection with it.

Every care has been taken into consideration when translating this press release into English. In the event of differences between the English version and the Swedish original, the Swedish version shall apply.

Read the release on the Globe Newswire website here.