• As owners of a mobile network, Devyce founders enjoy huge competitive advantage
• Set to serve $23 billion market of 54 million European employees using smartphones for work

London, 28 February 2023 – Devyce, a UK SaaS company that provides digital phone numbers to multinational businesses, has closed a $2.7 million (£2.2 million) seed funding round to spur on its ambition to create a global mobile network for business using its own mobile network operator licence. 

A ‘graduate’ of Y Combinator’s Summer 2022 accelerator cohort, Devyce’s funding round is led by Y Combinator alongside Garage Capital (backers of Substack and Vendr) and FoundersX Ventures (investors behind Moonshot Brands). Individual investors also participated in the round, including John Kim, founder & CEO of Sendbird, and Ryan Chan, founder & CEO of UpKeep. 

Founded by three London-based entrepreneurs in 2020, Devyce supplies businesses of all sectors and sizes with mobile phone numbers that can be used by their employees anywhere in the world using WiFi or mobile data. 

A digital phone number requires neither its own SIM card or handset to operate. Instead, a business customer assigns Devyce phone numbers to employees that they can use on their personal handsets. This significantly reduces the burden of managing multiple work phone numbers, contracts and handsets for employees who might be located all over the world, while still enabling businesses to see call stats, analyse staff performance and integrate AI-generated call summaries into their CRMs. Devyce phone numbers can be silenced outside of work hours and have their own voicemail systems, helping employees keep their personal and work lives separate without having to charge and carry two handsets.

Nick Browne, Co-Founder of Devyce, comments:

“Businesses are continually up against it to find cost efficiencies, while creating more hybrid working environments for their people. Mobile devices, whether used for calls, messages or video meetings, are an essential tool for doing business. Devyce makes it easier and cheaper for companies to help their people make best use of the devices they already have at their disposal, wherever they are located.”

In Europe alone, 54 million people use a smartphone for work. Devyce’s research found that businesses in Europe spend $23 billion (£19 billion) per year supplying, managing and replacing handsets for employees. While VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) technology has transformed the personal mobile phone industry – for instance, two billion minutes of calls are made on Whatsapp alone every day* – the mobile industry for business has been slower to innovate. 

The cost of providing VoIP for businesses has stymied innovation in this space. VoIP service providers require access to a phone network operator or platform on which their services can operate. For every number they lease from that network, they pay the network a connection fee, then continue to pay for calls and messages their customers make or receive. 

Here, Devyce has a considerable competitive advantage. The company’s co-founders are majority owners of a mobile network operator. By allocating numbers from this operating network, Devyce can reduce costs for its customers by as much as 70% while maintaining attractive margins for its investors. 

Helen Liang of FoundersX Ventures adds:

“Owning their own mobile network puts leagues between Devyce’s founders and their nearest competition in the digital telecoms market. It is a money-can’t-buy asset, as internet companies globally know having tried and failed to create mobile networks of their own. Devyce on the other hand ploughs on, able to offer unmatched low costs for an essential service that every company globally can’t do without.”

Mike McCauley of Garage Capital concludes:

“As more organisations globally embed flexible, hybrid or entirely remote working policies, there is an urgent need to accommodate cost-effective communications infrastructure among employees who may be located across multiple countries. Devyce helps companies cut costs while keeping their teams connected and working productively. We’re excited to support Devyce’s founders and their team as they expand business in the UK and replicate their unique opportunity in markets across Europe.”

Devyce’s monthly recurring revenue grew by 144% in 2022. Its customer base includes billion dollar global companies with established hybrid or remote working policies and 5,000 employees located in more than 100 countries worldwide. 

Devyce is headquartered in London with a team of 11 based throughout Europe. The investment will be used to bring Devyce’s product into new European markets and expand its product engineering team.

– Ends – 

Notes to Editors

* Source: https://www.businessofapps.com/data/whatsapp-statistics/

Contact 

Carmen Dixon, Mountview Communications: [email protected] | +44 (0)7717 278846

About Devyce

Devyce is a UK SaaS company that supplies multinational businesses with mobile phone numbers that can be used by their employees anywhere in the world using WiFi or mobile data. Devyce’s co-founders are majority owners of a mobile network operator, which is part of the GSMA, creating considerable competitive advantage in the digital telecoms market. By allocating numbers to this operating network instead of to a third party operator, Devyce can reduce costs for its customers by as much as 70%.  

Founded in 2020 and headquartered in London, Devyce is backed by Y Combinator, Garage Capital and FoundersX Ventures, as well as individual investors including John Kim, founder & CEO of Sendbird, and Ryan Chan, founder & CEO of UpKeep. 

www.devyce.com