Excalibur Communications completes management buyout
Former owner and CEO James Phipps retains a minority share of the Swindon-based firm
News - Manny Pham
May 22, 2018
On course to more than break target even after years of losses says CEO
After years of losses Truphone CEO Ralph Steffens says the eSIM firm will surpass its £40 million ‘break even’ revenue target after being fully accredited by the GSMA.
Last year Steffens revealed the £40 million target to Mobile News, to be achieved by the end of this financial year ending in December. Last year’s results (2017) are yet to be released.
Truphone reported turnover of £31.3 million for the 12 months ending December 31, 2016 – up from £25.7m year-on-year.
The eSIM developer gained GSMA accreditation in April, applying in December, joining the GSMA’s other 42 global operators.
Accreditation was achieved by acquiring SIM operating system developer Cellnetrix in October for an undisclosed fee. The acquisition added 20 members of staff taking head count to 250.
The acquisition gave Truphone the Cellnetrix SIM operating system. This was deemed an “essential” requirement from the GSMA to prove the security capabilities and scale of service.
Truphone offers tariffs which piggyback off global operators, enabling international use with no extra charge.
Last July, the firm struck a deal to sell data plans to iPad users via the embedded Apple SIM. Other Apple SIM partners include EE, Three, AT&T and T-Mobile to name a few.
Steffens told Mobile News: “The whole accreditation is all about security and how you manage and store data in a SIM environment, Cellnetrix is one of the most secure. That’s why a GSMA accredited SIM has never been hacked.
“The accreditation gives us relevance in the eSIM space as we’re aiming to have eSIM integrated in more chipsets to disrupt the SIM market.
“Truphone revenue will be substantially over the £40 million mark by the end of the year.
“Our 2017 figure is close to the mark as we go from strength to strength with strategic investments throughout the year.
We’re looking to bolster our Internet of Things business which might affect overall turnover but will be worth it in the grand scheme of things.”
Strategic
Truphone raised over £255 million from investors to repay its £233 million debt and fund strategic investments, such as the acquisition of Cellnetrix, in October last year.
The debt was incurred over the last six years due to investments made during that period. Truphone employs 350 members of staff globally, 75 in its London headquarters.
Truphone now claims to serve 3,500 business-to-business customers globally such as KIA, Citibank, Harley-Davidson Motorcycles and Synopsys.
