United Mobile, the low-cost roaming mobile operator, has announced it has completed a US$15 million round of equity funding led by Accel Partners and Grazia Equity, who join angel investors Morten Lund, an initial investor in Skype, Thomas Geitner, the former global CTO of Vodafone, and Robert Zacconi, CEO of King.com.
United Mobile provides international travellers with a single, global SIM card that offers both voice and data roaming. Using a network of 300 companies in 140 countries, the Swiss-based company transparently negotiates cheapest rate for outgoing calls and provides free incoming calls in more than 80 countries.
"The business potential for United Mobile is quite large," said Kaj Relander, General Partner at Accel Partners, who is joining the United Mobile board of directors. "United has the ability to significantly reduce the phone bills of both business and leisure travellers by offering cheaper phone calls abroad, and open up international roaming to millions of prepaid customers worldwide."
Accel Partners has a history of excellence and innovation in the venture capital business over 20 years. The firm is dedicated to partnering with outstanding management teams to build world-class Internet, software and networking companies. Accel has a history of backing category-defining companies, which include Facebook, Foundry, Macromedia, Veritas, and Real Networks.
"We are pleased to have the support of a investor with the track record of Accel Partners join us in building United Mobile," commented United Mobile's CEO Charles Fränkl, former CEO of AOL Germany and Vodafone Information Systems. Sven Donhuysen, primary shareholder and President of United Mobile, added, "Accel Partners brings a strong portfolio of world-class internet and mobile companies for United to partner with. We look forward to working closely with Accel to launch revolutionary, new, seamless products in the coming months."
International roaming is an oft discussed topic in the European Union. The European Commission regulated roaming tariffs in the EU last autumn, a decision being challenged by the UK operators. United Mobile's rates are roughly half that of the incumbent EU mobile operators, and significantly lower for EU customers travelling to other geographies.