Text Request, the business text messaging platform founded and headquartered in Chattanooga, Tennessee, announced its acquisition by the U.K-based global messaging solutions leader Commify. Text Request will remain in Chattanooga, and become a base for further U.S. market expansion.
Text Request was founded in 2014 by Brian Elrod, Jamey Elrod, and Rob Reagan to help businesses better connect with their customers through text messaging. In the decade since, the company has garnered numerous awards including being recognized on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing companies four times, and being named a “best place to work” by EDGE magazine three times, among many others. Text Request has continued growing at 60% per year over the last three years, approaching $15 million annual recurring revenue (ARR) and $20 million in total revenue, and serving more than 7,500 business customers across the U.S. and Canada.
“We are proud of Text Request and our team’s accomplishments over the last ten years,” said Text Request co-founder and CEO Brian Elrod. “We’ve hit milestones that very few bootstrapped tech companies achieve, and we’re especially proud of what this means for our local startup community. More importantly, Text Request is staying in Chattanooga, and will become an integral part of a global messaging brand. Commify aligns perfectly with the Text Request culture, and is a great acquirer to continue our vision. We welcome the Commify Team to Chattanooga.”
Commify has built a global portfolio of messaging brands that serve more than 46,000 business customers sending more than 5 billion messages per year, with offices across the United Kingdom, Europe, and Australia. Text Request marks Commify’s 18th acquisition since 2013, its second in 2024 under the backing of ECI, and its second in the high potential U.S. market, which it entered in 2022.
“I’m delighted to be making this major announcement today,” said Richard Hanscott, CEO of Commify. “The U.S. market is an exciting and significant opportunity for Commify. Text Request is highly complementary to our existing U.S. business, doubles our scale to well over $30 million revenue, and transforms our future position within this market. We can’t wait to get started with the team to continue to grow together in the years to come.”
Paul Burton, Chief Strategy Officer of Commify, added “We’ve been impressed by the Text Request team for many years, so it’s great to finally be joining forces. They’ve scaled up a class-leading platform enabling conversational customer care use cases for businesses of all sizes, taken to market by an experienced local team. This is our largest ever acquisition and takes Commify to over 400 team members and approaching €200 million revenue – we are very much open for business for global acquisitions with ECI’s continued backing.”
Text Request was advised by PEAK Technology Partners as exclusive financial advisor and Greenberg Traurig as legal counsel. Commify was advised by Grant Thornton for financial and tax due diligence, EY for tax structuring, and Squire Patton Boggs as legal counsel.
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