SparkPost

Was one of the largest cloud email delivery platforms by volume before being absorbed into Bird (formerly MessageBird); successor product competes with SendGrid, Mailgun, and Amazon SES

SparkPost was founded as a cloud-based email delivery service and API platform, emerging from Message Systems (the makers of Momentum, an enterprise email MTA) to offer a developer-friendly, high-deliverability email infrastructure for businesses sending transactional and marketing emails at scale. The platform became one of the most widely used email delivery services globally, powering billions of emails per day for thousands of customers ranging from startups to Fortune 500 enterprises. Its analytics capabilities, deliverability tools, and robust REST API made it a preferred choice for engineering and product teams building email into their applications. In April 2021, MessageBird acquired SparkPost for approximately $600 million, signaling a major consolidation in the cloud communications and email delivery space. The acquisition brought SparkPost's email infrastructure expertise and large customer base under MessageBird's omnichannel communications umbrella. On March 7, 2023, the SparkPost brand was officially retired when it was rebranded as MessageBird Email. Subsequently, in 2024, MessageBird itself rebranded as Bird, and the email product became known as Bird Email. The SparkPost brand no longer exists as a distinct entity. During its operational years, SparkPost distinguished itself through industry-leading deliverability rates, a powerful analytics and reporting suite, and a developer-centric API that enabled deep integration into modern application stacks. Its successor, Bird Email, continues to serve the email delivery market as part of Bird's broader customer communications platform, which spans email, SMS, WhatsApp, and other channels. SparkPost's legacy lives on in the infrastructure and capabilities that now underpin Bird's email offerings.