Truphone, a UK-based telecommunications operator backed by media group Independent News & Media (INM), raised £18m ($23.6m) on Monday through a rights issue, and secured a further £36m on a conditional basis.
The issue valued Truphone at $506m, though the company has not disclosed the participants or the conditions for the extra capital, which would increase the financing to approximately $71m at current exchange rates.
Founded in 2006, Truphone has built a global mobile telecoms network that enables it to offer customised international phone plans to business customers, who can connect any device across 190 countries using the company’s internet-of-things platform.
Truphone has also developed a sim card that can store multiple international phone numbers and created a mobile recording tool aimed at the financial services sector.
The company will use the capital to accelerate market adoption of its products. Its clients already include technology firm Apple, which has integrated Truphone’s sim technology into its iPhone and iPad devices.
INM participated in the company’s $24.3m series A round in 2007 alongside Acton Capital Partners, the venture capital firm then known as Burda Digital Ventures which was spun out of media group Hubert Burda the following year, Wellington Partners, Straub Ventures and Eden Ventures.
The same investors returned in 2008 to take part in a $32.7m series B round that also featured assorted private investors. Truphone received $118m from Minden and Vollin Holdings in 2013, before adding $298m through an October 2017 rights issue.
Truphone’s shareholders also include George Robinson and his investment vehicle Somercourt Investments, investors as of 2011, though it is not clear when they injected capital.
