Sent Raises $12M to Rebuild Messaging for AI Agents
Sent has raised a $12 million Series A for messaging infrastructure that routes business communication across SMS, WhatsApp and RCS.
AI agents can generate an enormous number of customer messages. Sent is betting that the difficult part will be delivering them through the right channel, identity and regulatory framework.
What happened
Sent raised a $12 million Series A led by Companyon Ventures, with Bessemer Venture Partners, Urban Innovation Fund and CP Overture participating.
Its API routes business messages across SMS, WhatsApp and RCS according to channel availability and user preferences. The company has also become a licensed US carrier, moving it beyond the role of a software layer that simply resells access to other telecommunications providers.
Routing matters because each channel has different reach, media capabilities, pricing and compliance requirements. A business may prefer a rich message in one application but need SMS as a fallback when that channel is unavailable.
Why it matters
If AI agents handle more customer service, appointment management and commerce, machine-generated communication could grow rapidly. Businesses will need infrastructure that prevents duplicate messages, respects consent and chooses the correct route without exposing every telecommunications detail to application developers.
Carrier status may give Sent more control over delivery, identity and compliance. It could also make the company more defensible than a thin API built entirely on third-party networks.
The bigger picture
Messaging infrastructure is competitive and operationally demanding. Reliability depends on relationships with carriers, changing regulations and the ability to prevent spam and abuse. More agent activity may create demand, but it can also make networks and consumers less tolerant of unwanted automated messages.
Sent reports 20,000 developers, 75 carrier relationships and reach to one billion phone numbers. Those figures are company-reported and not independently verified enough.
The company’s opportunity is to become a control layer for agent-to-human communication. Its long-term value will depend on whether it can make automated messaging more trusted and compliant, not simply increase the volume that businesses send.