Cloud communication specialist Twilio has agreed on a deal to acquired email API platform SendGrid for $2 billion.

The deal is expected to be finalised in the first half of 2019 and under the terms of the transaction, a Twilio subsidiary will merge with SendGrid, which itself will survive as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Twilio.

“Increasingly, our customers are asking us to solve all of their strategic communications challenges, regardless of channel. Email is a vital communications channel for companies around the world and so it was important to us to include this capability in our platform,” said Jeff Lawson, Twilio’s co-founder.

“The two companies share the same vision, the same model and the same values. We believe this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bring together the two leading developer-focused communications platforms to create the unquestioned platform of choice for all companies looking to transform their customer engagement.”

By joining together, the two companies can offer a single platform to manage multiple communication channels, such as audio, video and text messaging and now email as well. 

Twilio said its mission is to “fuel the future of communications” and that its latest acquisition “brings together the two leading communication platforms for developers”.

Last year the company enabled developers to create multi-user augmented reality content via APIs that could provide information on AR objects over a live video stream. The programmable video service can be used for collaboration on 3D assets with industries such as architecture and engineering, where AR can enable visualising a project while working remotely.

The company also provides solutions that enable digital transformations, such as the chatbots currently being used by Marks & Spencer within its call centres.