Skyroam, the Silicon Valley based mobile technology company that invented the Virtual-eSIM™ platform, closed a $20M Series C2 funding round on September 25th 2019. Skyroam closed its C1 round in early 2018. The new C2 round will enable Skyroam to drive new opportunities in the smartphone and IOT sectors, in addition to continuing to scale its profitable international Wi-Fi business.
The new round was co-led by Mesh Ventures and Phi Ventures, with participation from new investor Premier Ventures and returning investors Vickers Venture, Jafco Ventures, and GSR Ventures.
Skyroam is a leader in global connectivity, delivering local mobile data via its proprietary network of over 200 carrier partners worldwide to Wi-Fi hotspots and smartphones. Its newest innovation, the Skyroam Solis X, has created a new category as the world’s first global WiFi “Smartspot”, combining global Wi-Fi with advanced smart features. Altogether, Skyroam has delivered Wi-Fi to millions of travelers in more than 130 countries and is continuously expanding its partnerships with operators worldwide.
The strategic vision of Skyroam goes beyond global Wi-Fi. With millions of sessions already having set the foundation for a robust carrier-grade network, the SIMO Virtual eSIM™ Platform has rapidly fueled Skyroam’s expansion to deliver seamless domestic and global service. Skyroam’s service automatically connects to and switches between the best network towers, offering a service that is broader than any single network. Skyroam’s proprietary Virtual eSIM software can be embedded into mobile phones, tablets, laptops and any wearable or IoT device. The Skyroam-embedded device auto-connects to a local network partner, and if the user moves or the signal strength changes, the enabled device will automatically switch to the better network for continued high-speed data service.
Skyroam has been collaborating with manufacturers to integrate its software development kit (SDK) into the modem layer of 4G chips. Among others, it has joined hands with 4G chip giant MediaTek to directly implant Virtual eSIM into their newest 4G chips.
In 2018, Skyroam launched its Virtual eSIM technology in partnership with a local phone manufacturer in Indonesia, receiving strong initial conversion and positive feedback from local users, as well as from Indonesia’s Ministry of Communications.
Skyroam is now working with Tecno Mobile, a Hong Kong mobile phone maker with sales over 100 million phones in African market, to launch Virtual eSIM enabled phones on the continent this year.
“We are making a strategic investment in Skyroam, not only because they have demonstrated superior technology and patents, but also because they have built an ecosystem of strategic partnerships from chip makers to module makers to device makers, as well as other major players in this field to jointly collaborate on a long term, global vision. We believe this is a winner takes all play and we trust our investment decisions to support Jing and his team to execute this vision,” says Sam Lam, Managing Partner at Mesh Ventures.
One step towards protecting that vision has been the successful outcome of a recent lawsuit, where Ucloudlink Network Technologies, a competitor from HongKong, was found to be willfully infringing on Skyroam’s patented technology with their Cloud SIM. As a result, The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York has issued a permanent injunction to uCloudlink, mandating it stop selling, distribution and using its devices in the US as of September 1, 2019.
Jing Liu said, “The barriers around applications, content, device OEM and network operators will be soon be frictionless through our open connectivity platform and new cooperation models will emerge. It’s not just smartphones, but all smart devices can be connected right out of the box with Skyroam.”