UPDATED 00:15 EDT / FEBRUARY 24 2017

APPS

Email automation service Mailgun spins out from Rackspace, raises $50M in financing

Rackspace Inc. is still ringing in changes following an acquisition that took the company private, spinning out its email automation platform Mailgun Technologies, Inc. as an independent firm. The new entity also announced a whopping $50 million funding round on Wednesday.

Mailgun was acquired by Rackspace back in August 2012, in order to provide an easy-to-use email delivery service for developers using its OpenStack platform. Mailgun provides a set of APIs for developers to send, receive and track email through the applications they build. The company boasts several high-profile customers, including the developer platform GitHub, ride-sharing app Lyft Inc., communications platform provider Slack Technologies Inc. and ecommerce software firm Stripe Inc.

The announcement appears to be a part of an ongoing reorganization effort by Rackspace, which went private following its $4.3 billion acquisition by the private equity firm Apollo Global Management LLC in November. Rackspace said in February that it’s planning to lay off 6 percent of its U.S.-based workforce, or 275 jobs, in an effort to reduce its operating expenses and refocus on high-growth areas of its business, such as managed cloud services.

Mailgun’s $50 million financing round was led by Turn/River Capital, with participation from Rackspace and Scaleworks. The company’s new Chief Executive Officer William Conway said the money will be used to drive growth initiatives, expand customer support and accelerate Mailgun’s product roadmap.

Mailgun will once again “have the flexibility to invest in everything from product to sales without having to compete with other initiatives in a much larger organization,” Conway said in a blog post, adding that the new company is now looking to hire additional staff for its engineering, marketing, sales and support teams.

Image: Mailgun/Facebook

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