(L-R) Airalo Co-Founders Ahmet Bahadir Ozdemir and Abraham Burak
Airalo, an e-SIM marketplace, has secured US$60 million in a Series B investment round from a clutch of investors, its Co-Founder Ahmet Bahadir Ozdemir said in a LinkedIn post.
The investors participating in the round are Etisalat’s e& capital, Liberty Global, Singtel Innov8, Orange Ventures, Deutsche Telekom’s T.Capital, KPN Ventures, and Telefonica.
Existing investors Antler, Rakuten Ventures, Peak XV Partners, and I2BF Global Ventures also joined.
How the company plans to use the new capital is not immediately clear.
A TechCrunch report said the company currently grows revenues by 20 per cent, with about one million monthly downloads. It is also in talks to onboard more investors to raise a new round at a valuation of US$800 million to US$1 billion.
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Airalo was established in early 2019 by Abraham Burak and Ozdemir. Airalo — a combination of ‘Air’ and ‘Alo’ (which means ‘hello’ in many parts of the world) — aims to bring instant connectivity worldwide by allowing travellers to purchase virtual eSIM packages.
The firm allows users to download an affordable plan directly to their phone without the hassle of needing to exchange a SIM card. It means that if you are on a foreign trip, you no longer need to go through the hassles of buying local physical SIM cards at the airport and installing it or carrying multiple cards — no matter where you are.
In October 2021, Airalo secured US$5.4 million in a Series A led by Rakuten Ventures, with participation from Peak XV’s Surge, Antler, Singtel Innov8, Wayra (Telefonica), LG Technology Ventures, GO Ventures, Ground Control, Plug and Play, and I2BF Global Ventures. Two years earlier, the firm bagged US$1.9 million in seed funding from Antler and Surge.
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