Categories: MobilityWorkspace

Roman Abramovich Invests $118 Million In UK’s Truphone

On Friday, UK-based international mobile operator Truphone announced that it has secured £75 million in a round of funding from investors including Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich.

Abramovich’s investment company, Minden, has acquired a 23.3 percent stake for £70 million, valuing the company at £300 million.

Russians in London

Founded in 2006, Truphone had raised $57.1 million prior to this round, supported by several investment funds as well as the Independent News & Media, an international media group which is now part of the empire owned by another Russian oligarch, Alexander Lebedev.

Truphone has ambitious global growth plans. The company expects to “more than double the size of its potential market over the next twelve months,” as stated in its press release.

Truphone’s service currently works in 220 countries and is available as a local service in the UK, USA and Australia. With a single device and SIM card, customers can enjoy a local number in all Truphone countries. This allows them to access voice, data and SMS services at local rates. Their friends, family and business contacts can keep in touch with them wherever they are in the world by simply making a local call.

“Staying connected is crucial to the way we live our lives – and the demand for connectivity is growing. This funding round will enable us to continue to bring the promise of a mobile phone service without international borders into new markets across the world,” said Truphone’s CEO Steve Robertson.

This article originally appeared on East-West Digital News.

How much do you know about smartphones? Take our quiz!

Max Smolaks

Max 'Beast from the East' Smolaks covers open source, public sector, startups and technology of the future at TechWeekEurope. If you find him looking lost on the streets of London, feed him coffee and sugar.

Recent Posts

Northvolt Files For Bankruptcy Protection In US

Northvolt files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States, and CEO and co-founder…

42 mins ago

UK’s CMA Readies Cloud Sector “Behavioural” Remedies – Report

Targetting AWS, Microsoft? British competition regulator soon to announce “behavioural” remedies for cloud sector

16 hours ago

Former Policy Boss At X Nick Pickles, Joins Sam Altman Venture

Move to Elon Musk rival. Former senior executive at X joins Sam Altman's venture formerly…

18 hours ago

Bitcoin Rises Above $96,000 Amid Trump Optimism

Bitcoin price rises towards $100,000, amid investor optimism of friendlier US regulatory landscape under Donald…

20 hours ago

FTX Co-Founder Gary Wang Spared Prison

Judge Kaplan praises former FTX CTO Gary Wang for his co-operation against Sam Bankman-Fried during…

21 hours ago