Bandwidth

Bandwidth is a Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) company. They sell software application programming interfaces (or APIs) for voice and messaging, using their own IP voice network. Bandwidth was formed in 1999 by David Morken who was later joined by Henry Kaestner as co-founder in 2001, merging Bandwidth International into Bandwidth.com.

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Establishing Bandwidth in Raleigh, North Carolina allowed the team to tap into Raleigh’s wealth of talent surrounding the local businesses and universities. That talent would prove crucial in the early 2000s, as Bandwidth evolved from its humble beginnings to building its own nationwide all-IP voice network. One of the last to be built in the US.

In 2009, Bandwidth helped Google launch Google Voice, a first of its kind product at the time. Microsoft, Zoom, LogMeIn, GoDaddy, and others would soon come to leverage Bandwidth in their own platforms.

Focused on solving increased customer needs and growing demand, our team found themselves developing a software platform, APIs, and dashboards to help customers access and build around the Bandwidth network. Eventually, the Bandwidth portfolio would expand from Voice services to Messaging, and in 2011 acquired Dash Carrier Services to add Emergency Service capabilities.

That vertical integration of a software platform built on top of a network led the company to become a leader in the burgeoning CPaaS (communications platform as a service) market, and ultimately to going public in 2017.