UK-based Devyce is on a mission to help teams stay connected, right across the world. The SaaS startup has just secured €2.5 million ($2.7 million) to build its global mobile network.
It’s estimated that about 54 million people in Europe use a smartphone for work. Indeed, smartphones are second nature to have and are a critical part of both professional and personal life. for businesses, smartphones help keep teams connected – which is increasingly important as teams grow internationally.
It’s a big market as well, with providing these phones costing businesses billions every year. Despite this, the space has been slow to innovate, with it still being a costly and complicated world to navigate.
Aiming to make it simple, enabling businesses to connect using their phones via WiFi or mobile data, Devyce has just secured new funding to expand.
Funding details
- About €2.5 million ($2.7 million) was raised in a seed funding round
- The funding was led by Y Combinator alongside Garage Capital and FoundersX Ventures
- Individual investors also participated in the round, including John Kim, founder & CEO of Sendbird, and Ryan Chan, founder & CEO of UpKeep.
Founded in 2020, Devyce supplies businesses of all sectors and sizes with digital phone numbers – which means business mobiles can be used anywhere in the world using WiFi or mobile data.
Nick Browne, Co-Founder of Devyce: “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.”
A digital phone number means that neither an individual SIM card nor a handset is needed to operate. Devyce instead assigns a phone number that can be used on personal handsets – reducing 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.
While VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) technology has transformed the personal mobile phone industry, the mobile industry for business has been slower to innovate – thanks to the cost of access to phone networks. Currently, 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.
This is where Devyce stands out. By leveraging its own global network, Devyce is able to reduce costs for customers by a reported 70%.
Headquartered in London, the startup now plans to expand into new markets. The company recorded monthly recurring revenue growth of 144% in 2022.
Mike McCauley of Garage CapitalL: “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.”
