Despite the well-publicized IPO drought for VC-backed companies, Union Square Ventures-backed Twilio went public today. Twilio entered the public markets at a valuation of $1.2B, slightly above its last private market valuation of $1B.
Twilio is 7th billion-dollar exit for USV to-date. USV is known for backing well-known companies like Twitter, Tumblr, Etsy so we used CB Insights into where Twilio ranks among USV’s all-time lagest exits.
Top exits
To date, social media company Twitter is still the largest USV exit followed by gaming company Zynga (both which have not performed particularly well in the public markets).
As mentioned, Twilio is the 7th billion dollar exit for USV and ranks 6th among their largest exits. USV led Twilio‘s Series A in 2009 and has invested through their Series C in 2011.
(Fred Wilson of USV recently wrote that Twilio’s was the best seed pitch he had ever seen.)
Most impressively, USV has notched at least one billion dollar exit per year since 2011, check out the breakdown below.
| Company | Valuation | Exit Type | Exit Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Twilio | $1.23B | IPO | Jun-16 |
| Etsy | $1.78B | IPO | Apr-15 |
| Lending Club | $5.42B | IPO | Dec-14 |
| Flurry | $300M | Acquired | Aug-14 |
| $14.2B | IPO | Nov-13 | |
| Tumblr | $1.1B | Acquired | Jun-13 |
| Behance | $150M | Acquired | Dec-12 |
| Indeed | $1.4B | Acquired | Sep-12 |
| Zynga | $7.7B | IPO | Dec-11 |
| Tacoda | $275M | Acquired | Sep-07 |
USV Scatterplot
Union Square Ventures has notched a remarkable 5 $1B+ IPO exits and 2 $1B+ acquisition exits since 2011. That includes exits in Etsy ($1.78B) and Lending Club ($5.4B).
For a breakdown of USVs exits by year, see below.
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